What I know now and the difference it makes.
I've learned that most people, myself included, are distracted by distractions. In the film City Slickers, Billy Crystal needs to find the one thing that matters because everything else pales in comparison to that one thing. The difference between a strong or a weak reading of The Bible is the number of distractions you allow to come between you and the text. However, this applies to everyday life as well. What matters most is finding that one thing.
I will now illustrate this point by using an example from everyday grocery shopping. I have a shopping list of only one thing: milk. I walk in the doors of Wal*Mart (for illustration purposes; and they have great prices on milk!) and I notice that there is a sale on Christmas Cookies, so I pick up a box and continue on my way. Then I see a doughnut in the bakery that I have to have since I did not eat breakfast. I finally get back to the dairy section and pick up a gallon of milk, but the aisles are packed with Christmas shoppers so I detour around them and head over towards electronics and see a sweet deal on TV's and Blu-ray players! You know where this is going. I entered the store with one thing on my mind and left with several items because I was distracted from my true calling: a simple gallon of milk. This has happened on occasion to even the most determined of us. It is important to remained focused on the task at hand; after all, if you have lived through the above example you know you just forfeited hundreds of dollars on impulse shopping.
When you stay focused you can get it done faster and more effeciently. But is life nothing more than a race to the finish? Northrop Frye posed this question when he asked “How do I live a more abundant life?” In Luke 10:38 we see a rather unusual occurrence:
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.” And Jesus answered and said unto her, “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful, and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Is that The Bible's way of saying “stop and smell the roses?” Jesus tells Martha that she is troubled with too many things while her sister Mary has found the one thing that matters to her. Sure the dishes need to be done, but are they really more important than spending an evening with Jesus? This story appears to reward the slacker, much like the story of the prodigal son. In it the son who left home to party and drink and chase women (I would assume) returns home and is given a feast, while the son who stayed home and tended the farm and the animals was never treated in such a fashion. He asked his father why they would celebrate so for his brothers return. His father replied, “He once was lost and now is found.” (though not in those words.) These parables are an attack on the readers expectations. I learned in nursery rhymes that if you do not help old mother hen bake the cake you can not have any when its done. Does not every church in America say “God helps those who help themselves?” So why does The New Testament tolerate, maybe even encourage, the behavior of Mary and the prodigal son?
I for one spent hours upon hours “doing the dishes,” this semester which is my way of saying I was overloaded with homework. Let that be a lesson to anyone wanting to take 19 or more credits in one semester, use the summer session! Of course, being a business major and specifically in the accounting program, I had: more fake tax work than should be legal in most countries; loads of busywork from audit and cost courses; a few group projects more than necessary in financial statement analysis; and the most pointless assignments imaginable in the college of business capstone course. Dr. Sexson pointed out in the first few weeks of class that we all have the same number of hours in a day, so it simply becomes a matter of prioritizing and unfortunately I prioritized many of these burdensome things over my complete reading of the Bible. I did however, read the entire Book of Revelation. (Perhaps my one needful thing in this class that I knew before going into it.) Personally I just had to read this portion of The New Testament and come to the class lecture to hear what Dr. Sexson had to say. We could have easily spent everyday of this course talking about this one book, but again, we must prioritize and spread the wealth. These final pages did provide me plenty of ideas to write about in my blog posts; I only wish now that I would have given the other books the same attention that I did Revelation. But I can not dwell on the past and I will not worry about the future. After all the concept of time is only an illusion. The only moment we have is right now. What I learned in this class, from Dr. Sexson and my father, is that the future is inconsequential to what we do now. I have an infinite number of possibilities at every moment I have. Perhaps The New Testament is not rewarding lazy behavior so much as it is encouraging us to enjoy life every once and a while.
Remember The Shinning? “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” If you want to avoid going crazy you have to step away from the type writer and find something fun to do. Or take you hands out of the sink, stop doing the dishes, and enjoy the company of your guests.
Frye asked how to live a more abundant life and Crystal responded with the needful thing. But what is it? The phrase “to each his own,” comes to mind. My personal necessity is entertainment. I do not view it as an escape; more like a vivid journey your mind takes while your body remains where it is. In Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Haroun is repeatedly asked what the point is of stories that “aren't even true?” What these characters are getting at is that fiction only distracts you from what is important. I argue that the only distracting fiction are the bad ones. How can you tell if it's bad? Dr. Sexson had a quote last year (I apologize for not knowing who said it) that “If you feel depressed after a piece of literature, then there is either something wrong with it or more likely you.” I might have to disagree and say that if you do not not feel anything after reading a piece of literature, then there is something wrong with it or you. Storytelling conveys a plot and characters and settings to the readers, but it has to elicit an emotion to be any good.
After this class, I learned to find my needful thing and to spend everyday enjoying it. For me, I need to be a part of the give and take of storytelling. Whether its William Shakespeare's Tempest or Scott Lobdell's X-Men. The greatest Greek tragedy or the worst Hollywood horror film. A feel good party song or the saddest break-up ballad. Or indulging my own award winning writing skills.
“Each days a gift and not a given right” -Chad Kroeger
