Bumhoodery

I graduated from the University of Kentucky in December and I have a job lined up in June. So I’m in this strange medium between school and career. People ask me all the time:
“What are you doing now?” and I respond with
“Welllll I am interning here and doing that and what not, but in essence, nothing. I have no job and no school.” Of course, they reply
“Well that must be the life!”

And they are right. This semester—or lack thereof—has been easy-breezy and fun-filled. But what this semester has been is far different from what this semester was expected to be. God has taught me several lessons through this season of no work and no study.

Work is good

They say you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. But could you ever imagine missing work? The dream life for many is to get rich and never have to work another day in their life. But I can tell you friends, not having work is miserable. As Eugene Peterson says “The only thing worse than bad work is no work.” We were made to work. This semester, I found myself at times not having any work to do. I didn’t realize how terrible it would be.

We are under this strange idea that work is a bad thing. We look at the fall of man and we point to the fact that because Adam sinned, we now have to “toil” to survive. However, this is not the case. If you look carefully, work existed in the Garden of Eden—the world as it was supposed to be—before the fall. Adam worked. He named the animals and ruled over the world for who knows how long! But not only did Adam work, God did too. He created. He shaped. He spoke things into being. So in essence, work is godly. Yes, our work will be frustrating, draining, and downright exhausting sometimes. But it is a part of who we are! Just because weeds grow up amongst the crops doesn’t mean one should stop planting altogether. Your work, no matter what it is, will bear fruit.

So be thankful for work. We get to participate in God’s work. But by God’s work, I do not mean simply evangelizing or worshipping or serving in a nursing home. I mean any form of occupation that uses God’s creation to create. In essence, we are sub-creating. So let’s get beyond this foolish idea that you have to be a minister or a non-profit worker to do “God’s Work.” Was Jesus not a carpenter? Was Paul not a tent maker? Were the apostles not fishermen, tax collectors, and doctors? Jesus redeems work so that we may delight in serving Him through our work.

I could seriously go on and on about this topic, but I will simply recommend Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller. It will bless your work life and your understanding of work so that you can enjoy the calling and the occupation that you have received with great joy and fervor.

We live in seasons

This period in my life has further cemented the lesson that our lives are lived in seasons. Not only do we go through constant change in temperature and holiday, but we also go through different seasons of joy and mourning, of work and leisure, of spiritual fulfillment and spiritual drought. C. S. Lewis calls this phenomenon the Law of Undulation, meaning our life undulates, or swings back and forth between high peaks and low peaks. If you can understand what sort of season you are in, you can adjust your behavior and perspective to maximize your circumstances.

Right now, I am in a season of preparation and refinement. In prayer, God has consistently shown me all He has done over the past 3 months—and the past 4 years—to prepare me for the next phase of my life. In His presence, I have seen how He has incubated me in this college atmosphere to grow and learn how to lead a life of integrity, to grow self-sustainingly, and to serve in holy matrimony. When I’ve been antsy to find something meaningful to do in this season, Jesus has assured me that I could sit at the end of a dock and drink sweet tea all day and His love for me would be no less. Because I understand this period as a season of learning and preparation, I’ve been forced to rest and realize that my worth is not in my work. As a result, I have been in consistent reading, learning, and gleaning wisdom.

Free time reveals your idols

So every day for the last 3 months, I’ve had a large chunk of free time apart from my daily duties of interning and discipling. I could pray for people. I could eat lunch with people. I could workout whenever I wanted to and play video games all day long. I could take week long trips at my say so and travel wherever I needed to go. But I’ve realized an interesting characteristic in time. Like money, time reveals where your heart is. Over this long season of occupational freedom, I’ve seen my heart fall off the goal of Christ for the sake of meager idols here and there. Let’s talk about a few I’ve encountered.

Sports
I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest religions in America—especially among men—is sports. Think about it. What has some of the biggest cathedrals around devoted to worship? Sports. What has its followers spending gobs of money to attend and participate? Sports. What can cause a kid to miss church, a husband to ignore his wife, a country to stop and watch? Sports. Now you may say I don’t worship sports. It’s not a religion. But I’m afraid our hearts are idol factories: where we put our time, money, and attention is what we worship.

I love March Madness. I love the heart, the constant entertainment, the passion. But doesn’t it seem reminiscent of the religious festivals of old? In high school, we could put the basketball games on during class so we wouldn’t miss it, but we weren’t allowed to have organized prayer. In adult life, bars are crowded with fans euphoric with a group high when their team wins, students end up picking a college by its sports swag rather than its community, and families are caught running all over the country to watch their children participate and exceed in sports. If I tell someone I’m a Christian, they may say well that’s good and well. But if I declare I am a  UK fan in hostile territory, I’ll receive a litany of sneers and disgusted faces.

I recently read an article on the average NFL fan and what they spend on their team.
–$380 on gas, transportation, and parking.
–$400 on food and drink at the games.
–$70 on clothing and team gear.
–$210 on food and drinks at bars watching away games.
–$113 for one ticket each year to an away game, plus another $500 on transportation and a hotel.
–$250 for subscriptions to stuff like DirecTV’s NFL package, other sports channels, magazines, and websites.

That adds up to $2,036 per year. I imagine that is more than a lot of people’s tithe.

Are sports wrong? Of course not! There are very few things that, in themselves, are wrong. But when we take this good thing and make it a God thing, it can ruin our relationships with both God and His people.

Amusement
Growing up, video games were the best thing ever. I could go get lost in a world of fantasy, challenge, and achievement. I figured, since I’m getting married here in May, I probably wouldn’t touch another video game controller for a while (I can hear the applause from the ladies). So what did that thought lead me to do with my free time now? Binge on video games. And boy did I ever. I had a solid allowance of 2-3 hours of video games a day. Was it fun? Absolutely! Was it beneficial? Not really.

Let’s look at the word “amusement” for a second. The root muse comes from the Roman Mythological idea of a creature, called a muse, which would give artists, writers, and musicians their greatest ideas and eurekas. In essence, muse means inspiration. Now let’s add a negating ‘a’ to the beginning, thus giving us “amuse” or lack of inspiration. So what is amusement? It’s an activity that provides no inspiration. Perhaps that’s why after a long stressful day, a few hours on the television or on video games provides some relaxation; it’s brainless.

Is amusement bad? No! But it can quickly become an idol. Have you noticed that in our living rooms, all of the couches are faced towards the television? If you were to go to a Hindu country, you would notice that all the chairs in the house face towards their god or idol (a golden calf makes a great centerpiece). We have to be careful where we place our value and what we worship. What if families had all their seats facing each other rather than that magic amusement box?

Did you know that the word “bored” was never really used before the industrial revolution? Most people were busy trying to make a living, trying to raise a family, and trying to live in community. But now we find ourselves in a bored country. Yet, the ironic thing is, the more amusement we seek, the more bored we get. We have 300+ channels on our TV’s, endless movies and video games to consume, and tourist attractions in every city. Yet we’re BORED! It’s not uncommon to see a family at a restaurant with their kids’ heads buried into a mobile gaming device and the parents on their phones. We are all in pursuit of the god of amusement. We are all left unsatisfied. God desires for His children to fill their lives and their minds with meaningful, joyful, and inspirational material. Yet, we orient our lives around mindless drabble.

Control
I like to be in control. I like to lead and I like to know what’s going on. But in a season in which I’ve had total control of everything I do but no control in the results, I’ve learned that control is best left with the Big Man. God is a whole lot better at controlling what happens, where I should go, and what I should do. Coming into the semester, I wanted to do big things for God with my free time. I wanted to free the oppressed. I wanted to blow people’s minds through prayer. I wanted to see the kingdom come in full force. So I tried trying to manifest God’s presence wherever I went. I tried to make things happen. And sure enough, I found out—as I always do when I try to put God in a box—that the Holy Spirit doesn’t move the way I want Him to. In fact, He very often does the opposite and it’s frustrating.

So I stopped trying to control things, and something magical happened. Things started happening. I gave my schedule and my power to God and He ushered me into a rhythm of peaceful patience and anti-hurriedness. He said “You stop worrying about where you’re trying to go and I’ll get you where I want you to be.” It was so wonderful. What started as an energy-sucking pursuit of glory ended as a leisurely adventure into God’s presence. Let us not forget, God’s timing is perfect. He is never early and He is never late.

I don’t care what you think

Now more than ever, I don’t care what you think, and it’s GREAT! I realized this when I thought back to my old modus operandi and how I used to think. I used to worry about social media and what was going on and who was interacting with me. This semester, I made efforts to wean myself off of that social surrogate. I used to care about how many people visit my blog and if anyone thought I was really smart or wise. Now I don’t give a crap about who reads this rhetoric. I just write this stuff to connect with God. I used to care about how I looked until one day I felt as ugly as I possibly could and Rachel still thought I looked really cute. I was dumbfounded. But it was life-giving, because now I know that she thinks I am attractive regardless of what I do. I don’t really care about what other people think, girls or guys. It’s a great place to be man; let me tell ya! All that I am is no longer all that is said about me.

Once in prayer, I had this image of myself as a little boy walking around with all these trophies, accolades, and ribbons stacked up in my arms. Behind me were a bunch of chains laying on the ground. The chains were around my ankles but Jesus had cut them off of my feet so I could walk better. These chains represented all the accusations, gossip, and negative things said about me. The trophies were all the good things I did and all the praise I received, whether to my face or behind my back. I had gotten free from the chains of accusation, but I was still being weighed down by all the trophies and compliments I was carrying around. I had given Christ my burden of worrying about all the bad things people could say or think about me, but I still liked holding on to my accomplishments and medals. Then, in this vision, I saw myself handing up all of my trophies and junk to my Father. I gave him everything in my arms and I felt so light and free. Now whenever I receive a compliment or accolade, I just hand it up to my Father. He deserves it. He’s got a big enough trophy case for it. He can carry it.


So I’ve been learning a lot. Experience is a cruel teacher, but you learn. By God, do you learn! The Father has provided me with joyful discipline and humbling experiences. But I can say that I am so ready for what is in store. Praise God for being an amazing Father!