My mom had her heart set on my having a dual career as an
attorney and an accountant. She had endured the privations of the Great
Depression, and it forever changed the way she looked at life. She wanted to
make sure that I had a job that guaranteed financial security.
You can imagine how hard it was for her when I came home
from college and began talking about going into the
ministry. Mom was so determined to thwart this foolishness that she telephoned one
of the professors at the seminary I planned to attend. She made an appointment to
see him, flew from Western Colorado to Denver, and confronted him on the foolhardiness of her son's becoming a pastor.
A gracious man, the professor admitted that most people in
ministry don’t find financial success to be their main career benefit. In time
Mom resigned herself to my calling. But it was never a
comfortable fit for her.
It’s tough when your family doesn't really believe in you. Most of us
want to hear, “I’m proud of you,” from our parents, but many of us never do.
I admire Jesus’ perseverance in the hard road He had to
walk, even when His family thought He was crazy. Early on,
when the crowds began to gather around Him, here’s how His mother and brothers
reacted: And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for
they were saying, “He is out of his mind” (Mark 3:21).
You can say it didn’t bother Jesus. He was God, after all.
But in His true humanity, I have no doubt it was another heartache. Even a
perfect Son wants His family’s approval.
And of course the infinitely greater rejection was coming,
that moment when His Heavenly Father turned away from Him.
How grateful we are to a Savior who endured all this, the
loneliness, rejection, and misunderstanding, to complete a mission for sinners
like you and me.
