Last week John Piper announced that he was taking a leave or sabbatical for the rest of the calender year (starting in May). Here is part of his statement on the reason behind his decision:
I see several species of pride in my soul that, while they may not rise to the level of disqualifying me for ministry, grieve me, and have taken a toll on my relationship with Noël and others who are dear to me. How do I apologize to you, not for a specific deed, but for ongoing character flaws, and their effects on everybody? I’ll say it now, and no doubt will say it again, I’m sorry. Since I don’t have just one deed to point to, I simply ask for a spirit of forgiveness; and I give you as much assurance as I can that I am not making peace, but war, with my own sins…
…The difference between this leave and the sabbatical I took four years ago is that I wrote a book on that sabbatical (What Jesus Demands from the World). In 30 years, I have never let go of the passion for public productivity. In this leave, I intend to let go of all of it. No book-writing. No sermon preparation or preaching. No blogging. No Twitter. No articles. No reports. No papers. And no speaking engagements (read the whole post here).
There is a lot that could be said about this, but the “passion for public productivity” is what immediately stuck out to me. I love what Pete Wilson said about this:
This addiction to “Public Productivity” is strong. Just think, most of us get quite a few accolades for the hard work we put in at the office. When I work 15 hour day I often feel a great sense of accomplishment. I love the high risk decisions, the writing under pressure, and the raw excitement of ministry. In fact, being loved for public productivity can be exhilarating and addictive. It feeds my ego. This is why so many people end up with an inflated ego and a deflated family (read the whole blog post here).
The allure of public productivity is great, especially within social media. Those of us who find ourselves blogging and tweeting consistently have the thoughts about what would be a funny tweet or an interesting blog post. This social media world has a lot of benefits but it also can pull us away from the things that matter more. The allure of public productivity is a dangerous one, and even more dangerous because until you are sucked into it, the dangers of it are hard to understand.
Any thoughts on public productivity or Piper taking an extended leave?
