Archive for January, 2009

While staying up inappropriately late with a couple friends tonight we had a great long conversation. There were many topics of discussion but the one that is resonating with me is the brief time we spent on life stage.

Thinking about my life stage I’ve decided to rip off a central theme: ‘JUST DO IT.‘ It seems to have worked wonders for Nike as my brother owns quite a few ‘vintage’ style shoes from the ‘JUST DO IT.‘ era. Of course, my life stage has little to do with shoes, this is just simple a slogan that seemed to go along with it.

I have some friends with whom I spent New Years Eve with and they did this little game type thing where you come up with a theme for your life, for the new year. At the time, I couldn’t really come up with anything cool or creative or that really seemed to fit me. Obviously, I’m still not doing a whole lot better as I’m simply ripping off Nike at this point. (Please don’t attack me, Nike, I have no money to give you.) So, now nearly a month into the new year I am coming up with (or stealing) a theme. In case you haven’t figured it out the theme is ‘JUST DO IT.‘

It seems I spend a lot of time talking about where I am in life, yet not doing a whole lot about it. I’ll be brutally honest – I’m 24, I live with my parents, I don’t have a full-time job and no real prospects of a full-time job… I did have one but, I quit it without lining up another one first (brilliant in today’s economy I know.) I ‘work’ part-time with a friend of mine who is in a wheel chair and, I use the term ‘work’ loosely. Mostly we sit around and talk about life religion and other such things while smoking cigars or watching ‘Breakroom‘ on TBS – sometimes we pull off both at once, these are the days in which I really work. Then occasionally I take him places and fix food for the both of us, it’s a pretty rough job.

Anyway, life stage. Tonight while chatting with friends one of them, a married friend, brought up a great point. While both of us are trying to figure out our next steps he pointed out to me that I am at a point in my life where I really could go anywhere and experience anything. I’m not ‘tied down’ so to speak. While I know he doesn’t view his wife and kids as keeping him tied down, in fact I know he loves them very much, there are certain responsibilities one has when they have a family. It’s not as easy for him to pick up and leave. So many times I try and come up with reasons (excuses) why I don’t really do anything besides float along in life. I never really step out in faith because I tend to play it safe. So, here I am. At home, not doing a whole lot but saying ‘I would love to do *blank* as soon as I *blank*. Clearly, the blanks could be any number of things that I make excuses for putting off, not simply a blank spot in my mind (though plenty of those do exist, trust me.)

I remember very well laying out my life plan in all my infinite wisdom to a speaker at a youth camp. I was all of fifteen and even shorter then than I am now and I had it all figured out: I would go to college, get a great degree, go be a business man, make a lot of money with my computer company or something, then someday when I was fat and comfy I would retire, and do ministry. I remember him listening to me patiently as I laid it all out. I felt so great letting this man know that someday, after I was rich, I would be humble enough to take a meager pay or maybe even nothing – to be a pastor of some sort. What a sacrifice I was committed to!

After I had explained all of this to him he looked me right in the eye and said ‘Why wait?’ Ha, why wait!? Clearly he didn’t hear everything I said, I was going to be a pastor. Just like him, shepherding people… what a great pastor I would be… Maybe he didn’t hear me. I was baffled. He explained in some amount but of course being the know-it-all punk kid I was I didn’t really listen. I was too busy thinking about how he asked me why I would wait. Looking back on that, he was a pretty smart guy. Check this out:

“13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.“
- James 4:13-17 ESV

So, I guess he had a point… it only took nine years for it to sink into my stubborn brain. If I feel God calling me into a direction of full-time ministry why would I wait until I’ve done what I wanted to do? Does this mean that I have to work at a church? No. Does this mean that I can’t work for a company and make a lot of money? Of course not. What it does mean is that it’s not my place to decide these things. No matter where I am at, or where God puts me, I need to be doing ministry. That goes for anyone who calls them self a follower of Christ. (Christian, or whatever other ‘creative’ way you refer to yourself.) We’re all called into ministry the moment we ask Christ to run our lives, full-time ministry.

Alright then, here I am. What will be my ministry? Whatever God wills it to be I guess. Looking on my situation now maybe with a different perspective: Living with my parents (no rent), no full-time job (plenty of free time), no real prospect of a full-time job (continued free time). Looks to me like I’m in a pretty good spot to start going where God tells me to go. I don’t appear to be tied down to anything… yes, I have a lot of close friends around here, a great community who loves me as well… people who take the time to mentor me and teach me about life and God too. All of these things are great, and I may end up sticking around KC but, I’m not ruling anything out.

Just do it. My 2009 ‘theme’ a ripoff of a great advertising slogan, rehashed and turned into a bit of a cliché. Here’s to 2009, about a month late.