I’ve been thinking a lot about being faithful until the end. Pastor Min talked about it on Friday at Lock-In. I’ll share some more thoughts on it in the upcoming days.

After 10 years, I have a job, I have a house, I have a bank account – is that what I have to show for 10 years? That’s what I talked about at least. The sad thing is, I could lose all that over night – every thing I’ve built in 10 years, gone overnight. In fact, everything on earth can vanish; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. There are three things that are eternal though. Three things that will carry over once this world is done – God, God’s Word, and people’s souls. I think about these three things. I have grown much closer to God over these ten years. I’m MUCH different than when I walked onto this campus my freshmen year. I think about souls, about the people I’ve affected. 10 years – 10 small groups, maybe about 150 people. 150 lives that I’ve touched – for better or worse – hopefully for the better.

One thing remains – God’s Word. I’ve read it more, cover to cover a couple of times. I’ve memorized verses here and there. There’s one thing that has been running through my mind – a sermon that lingers.

Did you know that if you memorize just two verses a day you’ll have the whole new testament memorized in ten years. [Crowd laughs] You can do that. I encourage you. 10 years is a very very short time.

- Pastor Michael Shea – OIL 2005 – First Morning Exposition “The Road to Wisdom”

10 years … I could have memorized the New Testament by now. Looking back, I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I’ve graduated high school. How the time has gone by and yet, so much has happened in those 10 years. A lot will happen in the next 10 years. Life will change, things will go on. We’ll get a little older. One thing I don’t want to pass me by – I don’t want my mark to be the job I have, the dollars and things I’ve accumulated but that I would invest in that which is eternal, that which will last not just for another 10 years but for an eternity.

The way my friend described this movie was true – it’ll make you laugh and it’ll make you cry – at the same time. I enjoyed this movie because it portrayed reality and conveyed convincing emotion. Two themes were really well executed. The first was how does a person deal with cancer and the confrontation of death. Adam, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, did an awesome job with his character. While at times he seemed a little flat, two moments really made it for me. The first was when his fellow chemo treatment friend Mitch dies. Death becomes a reality and he wrestles with his possible impending death in the scene with his therapist Katherine. Then, the night before he has his surgery, he takes Kyle’s car and drives it the wrong direction on the highway. I liked this scene even more because it portrayed the struggle of apathy, recklessness, and hopelessness that was running through his mind. It was as if to symbolizing taking death face on, only to break down and admit that he couldn’t do it. I felt like the script and directing did a wonderful job of bringing up this issue without it feeling forced and portraying how he deals with it in a very real way.

The second theme that I really loved (and evoked the most tears) was how cancer affects those around the cancer patient. This was subtly played in the beginning with just his girlfriend cheating on him because she couldn’t handle the stress. You slowly begin to see it affect everyone else and the theme is fully developed at the climax of the movie. Katherine brings it up when she points out that Adam is being a dick to his mom because he never calls her back. His mom is taking care of a husband with Alzheimer’s disease and a son with cancer – she has no one to talk to and he’s feeling like she won’t stop calling him. This is fully revealed when he finally asks her how she’s doing and she says she’s been going to a support group for parents of cancer patients. The moment that really got me was after he accused his best friend Kyle of trying to use him to get laid and then takes him home. Adam finds a book “Facing Cancer Together” in Kyle’s bathroom. The book was not only bookmarked towards the end but contained other markings and notes. Kyle seemed like the goofball that didn’t emotionally ‘get’ Adam’s cancer but here you see him as a true friend who has been doing his best to try and help Adam and who, at the same time, was faced with the possibility of losing his best friend. It wasn’t just Adam that was dealing with cancer but it was affecting everyone around him.

I left the movie thinking about these two things. How would I face death and would I be this kind of friend to someone or have these kind of friends in my life? I’d like to think that with Christ, I would not be afraid of death. As Adam says in the movie, “We’re all going to die. You’re (Katherine) going to die, hopefully much later than me.” That’s reality – we will all die and it is with confidence that I know that this life is just a shadow of what’s to come. I also hope that I would be a good friend to someone in such a situation. They don’t really show you what a real friend does in this situation and I think that’s the point. There isn’t a right way to be a good friend in such a situation but I think it’s about the person’s character and the fact that they try. But I really don’t know – I don’t know how I would react if it was me or a friend going through this and I think that’s the whole point of the movie.

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

This passage has always intrigued me. When I think of the Master speaking to the servants, I think think of Matthew 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into athe joy of your master.’” Earlier in Luke 12:37 “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”. In Matthew 25, the master speaks kind words to the servant and rewards him. In Luke 12, the master returns and waits on the servants. Luke 17 is very different, nearly opposite.

Some thoughts about Luke 17. First off, the Master appointed the servants’ jobs. They are plowing or keeping the sheep. Then he tells them to prepare supper and wait on him while he eats. This is what is expected of them. They don’t have a say in their assignments. They don’t tell the master, I’d rather keep the sheep instead of plowing. They don’t complain that they are too tired to wait on him or speak about how hungry they are after a long day of work. No, they keep serving doing what the Master commanded until the job is done. At the end of all this they say “We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.”

When I contemplated the content of this passage and the difference between this one and the other two, what stands out is the attitude of the servants. The master has the right to reward the servants if he so chooses. He can choose to say encouraging things or nothing at all. He can command the servants to do whatever he wants because they are his servants; it’s their duty. The Luke 17 passage highlights the attitude of the servants. They dutifully obey. They view themselves as unworthy servants just doing their jobs – not as entitled spoiled heirs.

The master commanded the servants what they do. He assigned them their duties and they do it. In the same way, he has assigned us our jobs and our lots in life. Who are we to complain about it? Are we to say that we want another job; I don’t like this one? We are unworthy servants not entitled to anything but to serve our master. I am to have the attitude of an unworthy servant as I do my job and live my life.

I understand that this is not what the auto workers want; they want their jobs. But while I am happy to help the auto workers, I am not happy to help them manufacture undesireable cars at massive social cost. I too, would have liked to keep my job as a management consultant. But I didn’t have a right to have the job I wanted merely because I liked it.

Her thesis seemed to be that the government was propping up a failing industry because those workers feel entitled to keep their jobs at their desired salaries and benefits when that model is what has led or contributed to the decline of the companies. I suggest the article as it provides good insight into the psyche of unemployment coming from someone who has also gone through a similar situation.

That night, at All Campus Worship, the speaker Dr. Dan Doriani spoke on 1 Corinthians 7:17, 20-24. He talked about work and staying in the place you are called. A repeated idea throughout the verses is ‘stay where you are’. Verse 17: ‘lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him’. Verse 20: ‘remain in the condition’. Verse 24: ‘whatever condition each was called, there let him remain’. God is sovereign and assigns your life. He sovereignly assigned you the current circumstances you are in, and there, let you remain. He related this to how we view jobs and careers. “Do you think your job is to be self-actualizing?” “Are you supposed to find fulfillment in it?” Our job does not define us. Our purpose is not found in our job. All that we are supposed to find in God. Yet we look for it in our jobs and majors. We are looking for some sort of satisfaction in our job. We want a career that fulfills our lives and gives meaning to our 9-5 Monday to Fridays so we switch jobs at the hint of something that sounds better. We jump ship for the more lucrative position. We treat our jobs as a way to serve us and our desires.

The autoworkers felt entitled to all the things they had and didn’t want to lose it even though their companies were going under. They didn’t want to lose their wages, pensions, or other benefits. Just like them, we feel entitled to a job that will challenge us, define us, make us lots of money. We feel entitled to a job related to our majors that will get us the lifestyle that we desire and have trained for. That’s what we seek and become discontent when we lose it. But life’s not about that, it’s not about our job and what we get from it. We are called to remain in whatever circumstance God has sovereignly placed us into (with some exceptions).

Originally written 5/3/11

ED: I wish I had finished this at the time. I think the 2nd point was communion. I totally want to do communion at my wedding. Marriage is just the shadow of our union with Christ to come when we reach Heaven. I want my wedding to reflect this.

Next on the list is The Outsiders but I’ll be taking a break from fiction to read The Cross of Christ by the late John Stott with Tim Challies (though my book will be arriving late. That’s ok though.)

I was so focused on the externals. I looked at what defined a life. The usuals: job, money, success, family, location, etc. Most of it I wanted to change but nothing has. Yet through it all I see grace. I see grace that sustains me and grace that helps me see the true value, true worth of everything. God doesn’t want success. He doesn’t want your money; doesn’t care if you’re not married yet or don’t seem to know what you want to do with your life (in the specifics sort of way). Then I realized there is one thing he does care about.

He wants to walk with me. It’s not a matter of doing but being. It’s not what I can do for Jesus, since he doesn’t need me to do anything for him, but being with Jesus. Two virtues that are on the forefront of my mind that nearly go hand in hand are faithfulness and integrity. A life lived out with these two stands brightly. They aren’t a matter of doing but being. Faithfulness isn’t done in isolation. It is not something that I might muster up the willpower to do. It is something I am by walking with Jesus every minute. Faithfulness is about walking with Jesus every moment in life.

I want to live a faithful life. I want to hear the words “Well done good and faithful servant.” The longer I live, the more I see that Christianity isn’t a rat race. There is no top to climb to. It’s not about who can do more for Jesus. The doing will come in time. It’s about being with Jesus; cultivating a relationship, it’s about walking with him. This year I want to walk closely with Jesus.