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Last weekend I went to Border’s to take advantage of all the looting that’s going on there due to their bankruptcy (more on that in my next post). I picked up 2 books, one of which was St. Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton. In the first few chapters that actually talk about the saint, Chesterton recounts the military dreams that Francis had aspired to and how they were ultimately crushed. According to Chesterton, Francis (or Frank, as we would call him) fell into this period of “aimless wandering” where he couldn’t quite figure out what to do with himself.
Before I read about this, however, I read about a friend of mine who posted a rather big dream on her blog. It was inspiring to read and I would encourage you to check out her blog. What struck me about it was how she was taking a big leap…a big leap toward doing something…awesome.
In many ways, my life lately has been like St Francis of Assisi…or that kid on the tricycle in The Incredibles. Remember him? He’s sitting around watching the Incredibles’ house hoping to see “something awesome.” I feel like I’m in an “aimless wandering” period of life, sitting around and watching and waiting to see “something awesome.” I’m like a player sidelined on the bench just itching to get in the game and do his part.
St Frank eventually broke out of his period of aimless wandering when he hugged a leper and decided to rebuild a church. Maybe I need a leper or a dilapidated church. Or maybe I just need patience. Seeing Kristin’s goal set me on a search to figure out that “something awesome” I could do for God…not sure if i know quite what quite yet…but there are ideas brewing. And I believe with some more prayer the answer will come shortly.
“What if I told you we were so far away? What if I told you, would you go with me anyway?”-house of heroes
I’ve recently been surprised about how much the Bible has to say about “fantasies.” For instance:
“He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgement.”-Proverbs 12:11
and then:
“Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of desire. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind.”-Ecclesiastes 6:9
Both of these verses have a common theme. In the first one, it is wiser to just work than to waste time chasing any fantasy that comes to mind. In the second, it’s wiser to enjoy what you have in front of you than to pine for something completely beyond your grasp. The common theme? Enjoy the present and be content with it; and don’t waste time fantasizing about things that can’t be.
This is a hard lesson for me to learn in my present state of life, as I toil beneath the yoke of Wendy’s and yearn for a better job, a better place, a better life. It’s easy for me to fall asleep at night fantasizing about what I could be doing. While it’s not wrong to dream big, I think these verses show that it is wrong to just dream and never do anything about it.
These verses also emphasize a godly contentment with what you have. Don’t dream about too much, but dream and work within reason. Very difficult indeed when you’re flipping burgers and struggling to bring in enough money to live off of. But if I “work my land”, God will provide. And if I enjoy what’s in front of me now, I think I’ll have more satisfaction than most. Hopefully these reasons overthrow my want to spend my days in idle fantasizing…
[side note: what do these verses have to do with fantasy literature? hmm...i think I have a future blog post already!]
Like this:
This past week I participated in a VBS (Vacation Bible School) at a local church. Doing so reminded me about a few things regarding VBS, children’s ministry, and my own life in general…I will quickly point these out to those interested:
- VBS music is terrible. It just is. Occasionally there’s a good song in there that was actually written by a real songwriter for the sake of the church, but other than that it’s terrible. I hated it when I was a student in VBS and I hate it still whenever I’m a leader at VBS.
- Do we have to do the pledge of allegiance? I understand the pledge to the American flag. We’re in America. Let’s show the kids not familiar with church that we Christians aren’t rednecks trying to take over the country in the name of Jesus. But should we be forcing unsaved kids to pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and the Bible? Are we forcing them to lie?
- Is VBS still effective today? I volunteered to work this for the sake of the church,but personally had reservations about doing it. It just seems old, tired,and not worth the time. But this week I’ve seen that, well, maybe the method still has some life in it.
- Children’s ministry requires a different teaching method. I learned this as I taught the Bible lesson each day the past week. At first I approached it as if I was talking to teens or adults who knew something of big words, the Bible, and life in general. I quickly had to change that approach to being less wordy and carve out more time for explaining certain words or Bible themes. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing…
- Is children’s ministry my niche? Ever since I first led a VBS crew around I realized something: Children’s ministry is not for me. I was painfully reminded of that this past week. Understand, I loved the kids I was working with (
except for the rambunctious ones) but for some reason I just can’t relate on their level in a meaningful way. Yet, I realize that if I want to someday be a father, shouldn’t I be willing to do children’s ministry…and a lot of it?Shouldn’t every parent and wanna-be parent be an avid supporter and participant in children’s ministry? Maybe I should rethink my personal preference…
OK, I’m sure there are other things to add to this, but they’ve temporarily fled my mind and this list should be enough to start discussion…so what do you think? Is VBS still effective? Should every parent be willing and able to help in kids’ ministry? Is VBS music really that terrible? (I know everyone agrees with me on this point) Discuss and enjoy.
