Kingdom Work

In the last few weeks, I graduated and commissioned in the United States Navy, but for the most part, after I finished final exams and projects, I went to a lot of receptions and ate a lot of food and spent a lot of time with friends and family.

I always tend to feel like I'm wasting time when I'm not "doing something worthwhile." Am I not supposed to be advancing the Kingdom of God, caring for his people, promoting the gospel, or something?

Ecclesiastes 2 warns that spending a lot of time worrying about strivings and labor is vanity. It states, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy the good of his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God."

It's hard to read a lot of Ecclesiastes, but I think it's wisdom that God gives us a lot of gifts so that we can enjoy them. So often we're overachievers, and we want to be great stewards and do excellent things with what God provides, but I think there's something to be said for learning to be a great recipient of a gift. How could we really be great proponents of the gospel of grace if we didn't first allow ourselves to be awed by what it means for us? How can we be planters of trees to shade others, if we don't know what it means to sit and enjoy the shade?

The book Through Painted Deserts by Don Miller recounts Don going on a road trip from Houston to Oregon and being overwhelmed by the fact that God made the stars and the mountains to amaze us. I had some similar experiences last summer, road-tripping through national parks from Houston to San Francisco. If you stand on top of Half-Dome on Yosemite, or look out over the depths and widths of the Grand Canyon, or stare around at the vast and terrible stillness of Death Valley, it gives you a sense of what God had in mind at the very beginning, before we fouled things up -- the world as an amazing garden for us to enjoy in His company. And the biggest lesson God taught me during that road trip was to learn let go, to relax, and to enjoy things as they came.

Sometimes the Bible isn't just a set of instructions, and sometimes the world isn't just a battlefield for Christians to conquer for Christ. Sometimes life is a love letter, authored by God, for us to enjoy. I think that's why Job was exceedingly blessed after his trials -- it wasn't a reward for any good behavior, it was a gift from a loving Father. I think it's why Jesus took a nap on the fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee. I think that's why I've had some time to breathe, relax, and enjoy my friends and family and the beautiful weather and this amazing university experience.