Juggling Roles

Today's student guest post is by Dustin Day. He is in his final year of the MDiv program. Dustin serves as President on ADCSA and is the co-Interim Pastor at Timberlea Baptist Church. Dustin is newly married to Valerie and lives in Halifax, NS.

We all have roles in society. Son or daughter, cousin, father or mother, aunt or uncle – we all have them. Our roles tend to define us and label us. Anti-bullying assemblies through grade school have taught me that ‘Labels are for jars and cans, not people.’ As I get older I realize that we will always have labels, but the difference is that adults tend to be proud of their labels, not shy away from them.


Student, Husband, Pastor. These are the main roles I hold. On top of the standard son, brother, uncle, friend, mentor, and Christian. Our role in society is never only one sided, we will never only be labeled a ‘person,’ there is always going to be a juggling show happening between our roles. I just happen to have overloaded on my share of the roles and, much like a clown at the circus, have stumbled and have dropped a few balls in trying to keep everything afloat. So, pay attention as I try to teach you how to juggle. It is a big secret, I hope you are ready.

First rule of juggling roles: Don’t.
A juggler constantly has balls flying through the air, always needs to know where each is and doesn’t hold all the balls at the same time, there is always some that are our of their reach, out of contact with them for a time. I have found these same rules need to apply to juggling many roles in my life. I cannot hold every role at the same time, I need to separate them and give them the dedicated time they each need.

I separate my time, dedicating myself to one, maybe two roles at a time. Looking at the day as three separate time slots and filling each with one of my roles. Husband is usually in the evening (since my wife has a 9-5 job) and the morning and afternoon can be one of the other positions. I do this seven days a week and ensure that the time I give to each is dedicated and that if I get a pastor-related email while working on a paper I put it off until work hours.

Second rule of juggling: Know the limits.
Everyone has their limits. When juggling, you should know how many balls you can have in the air while still being able to catch them. Know when to let one fall, to allow the others to continue. Know when you need to take a pause, focusing your attention where it needs to be and accept help from others who are willing to take a ball or two to help. Know the limits of your ability.

Our roles as students are often overshadowed by the other roles that we have had for our whole lives or the new ones that are just a few months old. In my life, the role as Pastor has taken priority over student, but that means that now, in the final moments of the semester my role as a student takes priority. As always, people have labels, and just like a label on a can or jar, what we do needs to reflect the label we have been given. (A box labeled sugar better be sugar… it better not be salt when I go to bake a pie for the spring banquet this week).