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Monday, November 01, 2004
There's a scene in the movie "Dead Poets Society" that I'm drawn to. Mr. Keating, a teacher played by Robin Williams, takes his prep school students outside the classroom to give them a bit of perspective.
Mr. Keating read some poetry about "gathering rosebuds while ye may" and then talks about important it is to "seize the day." He's standing in front of the storied school's trophy case, in which athletes and debaters and other champions from 70 years ago were just like the students are now.
Full of hope, full of optimism, full of promise, ready to change the world. All that stuff that the students are now, they were then. And now, Mr. Keating says, they're "food for daffodils." The implication is that someday, they will be food for daffodils, too. So, they should seize the day. Gather the rosebuds while they may. Live an extraordinary life because this life is all you get. That was his perspective.
Now, granted, it's bad theology. I mean, we should live an extraordinary life but for entirely different reasons. It's a matter of perspective.
And, that's what Psalm 127 gives us: A perspective on work...from God's point of view.
It starts in verse 1: If God doesn't build the house, they labor in vain who build it. If God doesn't guard the city, they labor in vain who watch it. The Message says, "If God doesn't build the house, the builders only build shacks. If God doesn't guard the city, the night watchman may as well take a nap."
In so many ways, this offends our American sensibilities. We're told our whole life that "God helps those who help themselves" (which isn't even in the Bible) and do things like "pick ourselves up by our own bootstraps." The reality is that it's vanity to labor in our own strength. We'll constantly be doing less than we're capable of if we were doing these things in His strength. It'll all be futile unless the Kingdom is in view.
Verse 2 even carries it further: "It's useless to rise early and go to bed late and work your fingers to the bone. Don't you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?"
Now, let me make it very clear that I don't think this is saying that work is bad...or that excellence is silly...or that we shouldn't strive to develop our gifts and talents to the full...there's plenty of other Scriptures that point to those things. So, you can't just go on a kickback and wait for God to be the Cosmic Santa and bring you stuff. You're missing the point if you think that.
Remember, this is about perspective on work.
And the proper perspective is that God is the reason for everything we do...and to go to class, or go to our job, or those chores around the house, or play sports or be involved in extracurricular activities for any other reason than Kingdom reasons are...
...well...
...building a shack instead of a mansion.
...or as useless as taking a nap instead of guarding the city.
So, it isn't really about "seizing the day" or "gathering rosebuds while ye may" at all because you're food for worms or daffodils. Nope. It's about remembering the purpose of doing what you do, so seizing the day and gathering the rosebuds actually has real meaning.
Kingdom meaning.
That is truly seizing the day.
Brent 4:15 AM
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