Tangent

Gonna sidetrack a bit.

So I was surprised yesterday morning to read the news from the Guatemalan (where I was born) newspaper that the current president is divorcing his wife, so that she can run for the presidential election this coming September (more info). Basically, the constitution forbids any blood-relative from the current president to run for president. Actually, the president thinks it is ok for his wife to run since she is not a "blood-relative", but that they are united by a "signed paper". But due to pressures, they decided to sacrifice their marriage for the sake of the country.

It sounds kind of heroic, sacrificing one's happiness for the sake of many people. Without going into the hidden intentions of politics, I question, it is really alright to sacrifice one's marriage for the good of more people? In a Christian context, it is ok to sacrifice one's marriage for ministry and church?

To further generalize, it is ok to sacrifice one's family for the church? In my early years, when I was a recently converted to Christianity (grade 10), I have this big desire to serve in the church. And I volunteer of many things, offer help to brothers and sisters, attended many meetings, and spent most of my time with fellowship people. It felt very good. Like I was doing something good. At the same time, I neglected to spend time with my parents and my brother. Especially, the relationship between my brother and I was affected quite a bit. He went through a lot of common teenager's problems (rebellious, disobedience, don't want to study, etc), and I was not there when he needed me the most. Since it has been difficult for me to talk to him.

So yeah, in the bible there is this passage about the qualifications of an elder:

"Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect." - 1 Timothy 3:1-4

Besides the specific character attributes, it includes stuff like "husband of one wife" and "manage his own family well". Perhaps, if those two statements are true, then a lot of character issues are dealt with. The idea is like, if I can't take care of my family (which is small number of people, and should be close to me), how am I gonna care for the church that is made of more people and there are people who might not be close to me.

Perhaps, this passage might not be as applicable in my case, as it specifically targets to elders, but I think the idea carries that we should work in our relationships with our immediate family, since they are likely to be close people to us, and probably the ones who can hurt us the most. So having good relationships with them is generally a sign that godly character is abounding.

Here is a Mark Driscoll's sermon to pastors, about marriage.