We're Measuring the Wrong Thing

I'm a Social Work major at University of Arkansas. It's the perfect major for me - I identify so deeply with the mission of social work and really feel like it's what I'm supposed to do. The main goal of social work is to provide all humans with resources - emotional, physical, etc. - that they need to have the life they want. It's about using my unique connections, skills, and gifts to provide someone else with opportunities that they didn't even know existed. It's about provided support and encouragement to broken, hopeless people who are often alone. It's about letting people know that they are never truly on their own. That's something I can devote my life to.

But I have a bone to pick with Social Work.

Actually, I have a bone to pick with the world.

The one thing that I hear over and over again in my social work classes is that certain privileges set you up for success. This is so true. If you have your own car, if you have an education, if you have a family that believes in you, you're chances of "success" SKYROCKET. So, as a profession, Social Workers want to help help people who are at a natural disadvantage because they lack these things.

So, the ultimate goal for people is.....success. I always hesitate to use this word because I honestly hate it. It's a filthy, sticky, deceptive word. It promises happiness but delivers emptiness. It wears a mask of prosperity while devouring its victims with whispers of discontent and jealousy.

So this is my beef with social work and with social work and with the world: we're measuring the wrong thing. We measure quality of life with a ruler of "success." Sometimes we even try to make the ruler look really nice by saying success includes family, friends, and community. But personally, I think that even the best ruler that the world has come up with is a cheap con of what life should really be measured by.

Matthew 6:33 says "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

One thing I did not realize when choosing Social Work was that, though in my mind my religion fits perfectly with the mission of Social Work in a unique way, there is really no room for religion in the workplace. Well, that's what they say anyway. As a social worker I am ethically bound to keep my beliefs to myself, to protect others and preserve diversity.

But when you have a treasure worth more than gold, how can you keep it to yourself?

I've been thinking a lot lately about how the world would be perfect if every single person had a relationship with God and sought after the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Oh, but I guess that's how the world was actually created in the first place, huh? And I guess that's what heaven will be like.

Anyway, the point is, I can provide someone with all of the resources in the world and help them create a successful, happy life but it will truly never be enough. Because, as I've blogged about before, when we chase our own joy, it ALWAYS eludes us. Jesus said to keep our life we must lose it.

I truly believe that the field of Social Work would CHANGE THE WORLD if they came at it from a Christian perspective. Instead of teaching people to chase success, teaching them about their God-given kingdom mission and showing them how to seek God! Because is a life with a family and a big house but a huge gaping hole in your heart really successful? So instead of chasing physical and emotional comfort as an end-goal, we should use these things to make the race after the kingdom of God a little easier for our brothers and sisters, with the end prize being God himself. And then we would find TRUE success, true delight, true joy, and true treasure.

"Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Oh, how you love us.