lately life has been too busy. a wedding coming up, the club potentially moving, new opportunities, starting a couple of new businesses, the church, life if full. sometimes life is too full.
it's easy to forget why we live. i used to think that we lived solely for religious fulfillment, for service. i've come to understand that most people need to make a buck far more then then need to go to a men's church breakfast on saturday mornings. for most people, they live for the weekend. as a pastor these people were a constant source of ridicule. we wondered why people were so lazy. why they were so flaky. i never really realized the emotional commitment that going to a single place of employment for 9 or 10 hours every single weekday can be. how tiring it can be to invest untold hours into a job that doesn't enthrall and stimulate you. most jobs are not a fulfillment of a personal life vision. most jobs just put food on the table.
it is dawning on me that it is work to do anything beyond the absolutely necessary. the weekends have come to mean something far different than they used to. as one of millions of people who gets one day off a week, it's hard to get into yet another commitment any time soon.
i've also realized that i love going to church on saturday night, if what we do can be called church. it's wonderful to sleep in on sunday mornings. saturdays are just to stinkin busy, and i don't even have kids who are in weekend sports.
it still sucks, but it's true. most of us really are working for the weekend.
i love this phase of my life.
it's easy to forget why we live. i used to think that we lived solely for religious fulfillment, for service. i've come to understand that most people need to make a buck far more then then need to go to a men's church breakfast on saturday mornings. for most people, they live for the weekend. as a pastor these people were a constant source of ridicule. we wondered why people were so lazy. why they were so flaky. i never really realized the emotional commitment that going to a single place of employment for 9 or 10 hours every single weekday can be. how tiring it can be to invest untold hours into a job that doesn't enthrall and stimulate you. most jobs are not a fulfillment of a personal life vision. most jobs just put food on the table.
it is dawning on me that it is work to do anything beyond the absolutely necessary. the weekends have come to mean something far different than they used to. as one of millions of people who gets one day off a week, it's hard to get into yet another commitment any time soon.
i've also realized that i love going to church on saturday night, if what we do can be called church. it's wonderful to sleep in on sunday mornings. saturdays are just to stinkin busy, and i don't even have kids who are in weekend sports.
it still sucks, but it's true. most of us really are working for the weekend.
i love this phase of my life.
posted by Scott at 6/29/2006
4 Comments:
yeah, my thoughts exactly, except I was one of those who worked 10+ hours a day, six days a week, plus committed to a ministry, but for what? Sure, people were blessed, but, was it those who already knew Christ? i look at like so differently know. for once i identify with those who don't look for the religious fulfilment
You do the long hours though and then coming to church can seem like harder work than any other day. This can't be right but seems to be the way it is.
God brought us to the DR to get us off the rat wheel (or whatever they call it). 14 years of 60+ hours a week had taken a toll on me, my marriage, my family. Now I work mornings (while the kids do homeschool) and we spend a few afternoons a week surfing or working in a haitian village... but that's hardly work. The cost of living is about half the cost of living in TO, and we no longer feel the pressure to buy things we can't afford to impress people we don't know.
There's also the possibility that work isn't something you get through, rather a lab where you get the chance to work out your faith for concentrated periods of time.
Just yesterday I got the chance to love a co-worker who as much as told me she was far superior, and I was a useless little appendage to the organization. Now... I chose not to love her. I was pretty pissed off as a matter of fact (and brewing a huge air of superiority myself). But Tuesday I get another shot at it. And the day after, and the day after...
No one knows better if my faith in Christ makes any difference in how I live than my co-workers.
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