Ignorant Historian

Another week, another challenge. I need more challenging…this has been very good for me.

“That you be totally committed to ministry, whatever your specific role, that you not fritter your time away on soaps or ladies magazines or aimless hobbies, any more than men should fritter theirs away on excessive sports or aimless diddling in the garage. That you redeem the time for Christ and his Kingdom.”

John Piper’s language in this one kills me. It really makes me want to use the word “fritter” in daily language more often.

But beyond the language, he definitely has a point. While neither soaps or ladies’ magazines have any draw for me (though I have been sucked into a reality show or two…guess those are  just soap operas for another generation), I do struggle with wasting time on insignificant things. Just last night I was talking to a friend about how to encourage her kids not to waste their summer days on television, video games, and the computer, when I had to admit that this was a struggle for me.

Personally, I find the less I watch TV, the less I want to watch it. That is, in part, why I’m choosing not to have internet at my new place. I’ll have cable though (included in my rent…I would have prefer just to have bunny ears!), but that’s not as much as a draw for me as I can’t choose to watch things on my own schedule like I’ve grown accustomed to online.

But I think that’s part of growing in wisdom…knowing when to remove things from your life to avoid temptation. For me, Internet is not a “need”…I work in front of a computer 40 hours a week and have a phone with Internet access.

Where else am I tempted to fritter time away? This is something I’ll definitely have to continue to reevaluate. I definitely spend time on the blog, but I’ve reduced that significantly over the last 6 months or so. Sure, my blog isn’t as popular as it once was (though it certainly was never “popular!”), I’m totally okay with that.  I feel like the balance I have with blogging now is what it should be.

So what should I be using my time for instead?

Ministry.

I’ve tried to realign my priorities to this end. It’s still a work in progress, but I do believe I’ve been improving. Since quitting AWANA in January to pursue more training in biblical counseling (they were at the same time, so I had to choose), I’ve been looking for another ministry opportunity. That opportunity fell into my lap last week: our church started a food pantry. You’re looking at the Saturday morning regular (you know, if you were looking at me!).

Between that and Sunday school, I feel like I have an appropriate amount of regular formal ministry. But informal ministry is important to, and something that is hard for me. I don’t like my schedule messed with, but this is an area I’m growing in. I’m single, so my schedule is rather flexible, even when I’m not. So I’m trying to be more proactive in seeking opportunities to serve others. Thanks to some growing relationships in my small group at church, those opportunities are definitely coming.

I think this is something that I will need to continue to work on for the rest of my life, and regularly reevaluate.

Photo by tsand

“In rejecting a biblical view of people, the world eliminates any hope of answering the ‘what is wrong?’ question accurately.  And if it wrongly answers this question, how can it possibly provide a proper solution?” – Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp, p. 9

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” – Mark Twain

“Caring for hurting people will always require more strength and grace than we possess.” – Susan Hunt in Women’s Ministry in the Church, p. 93

“Jesus remains, depsite two millinnia of rotten publicity from his followers, a universally attractive and compelling person.” – Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer, p. 49

“The West has finally achieved the rights of man…but man’s sense of responsibility to God and society has grown dimmer and dimmer.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, quoted in Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., p. 173

“I am persuaded that the church today has many more consumers than committed participants.” – Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp, p. XI-XII

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, not the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.  Such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” – 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, NASU, emphasis added

“Every Christian should have his church enclosed within his heart, and be affected with its maladies, as if they were his own, — sympathize with its sorrows, and bewail its sins.” – John Calvin quoted in Women’s Ministry in the Church by J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, p. 45

“Christians have astoundingly clear vision when it comes to the vices, deceptions, and spiritual blindness of their neighbors.  But when it comes to Sunday morning and what gets talked about during the church coffee hour, it’s another story.” – Mere Churchianity by Michael Spencer, p. 34

“We cannot treat the Bible as a collection of therapeutic insights.  To do so distorts its message and will not lead to lasting change.” – Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands by Paul David Tripp, p. 9

“The church is a bride being prepared for the approach of her lover and husband.” – Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible quoted in Women’s Ministry in the Church by J. Ligon Duncan and Susan Hunt, p. 31

“But the truth is, all of the Christian life, and all ministry, is beyond the limits of our own personal power and abilities.  Ministry begins at the end of our own competences and abilities.” – J. Ligon Duncan in Women’s Ministry in the Church, p. 148

Don’t look now, but I think I want to be single.

I feel like I talk my singleness to death on this here ole blog, but it’s something that I deal with on a daily basis, so I guess it’s something you, dear reader, have to hear about.  The tenor of these blog posts on my marital status tends to be: “I wish I was dating/married/a mother, but I want to be content where I am.”  Rest assured, this post won’t be anything of the sort.

Just last week I was contemplating my life.  Not the how-do-I-live-moment-to-moment or even the do-I-have-a-purpose type of contemplation, but the I-want-to-live-this-day-over-and-over-again kind of contemplation.  I like singleness: the flexibility, the alone time, the choosing what I want to eat and when, the extra time I get to dedicate to my favorite pastimes.

If I marry and/or have kids, these things will necessarily change.

I’m not saying that my motives are all right in this (I’m working on that one), but there’s some good in it.  First of all, I’m spending more time dwelling on the life God has given me than on the life that I want.  Secondly, one of the major motivations for remaining single is that I have more time/energy/resources to minister to others in and out of the church.  I could still do this if I was married, but a greater part of those resources would have to be spent on my family.

Of course, most of this is feeling-based, and as we all know, feelings change (over and over again).  While I was to the point of tears only a few weeks ago with an extreme desire for a husband and children, now I’m reveling it up in my current life.  If I were to remain single the rest of my life, I’d want my feelings to stay as they are, but I doubt that’s going to happen.  Actually, I know that’s not going to happen, because I’m still not immune to crushes.

Watch out, I think I might be seeing some green grass growing in between my toes.

Photo by  *sean