“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Matthew 23:13
In 1987 Star Trek: The Next Generation made its television debut. It ran for seven seasons and launched movies and spin offs. This article isn’t about Trekdom or the odd people it attracts. Instead this article is about one word made famous by the show. The Captain of the Enterprise had a catch phrase. He would stare ahead at the screen, a window to space and say one word, “Engage”. And just like that, the Enterprise was whisked off to another adventure.
Bad acting and the over use of spandex aside, I love the idea behind the word engage. It was a simple statement of “let the adventures commence”. This is your word for 2014 (see what I did there?). I want you to look ahead to the window of 2014 and boldly announce, engage.
Imagine your life as three categories. Things you have to do, things you want to do and things you need to do. Simple right? This is your life. Let me explain.
In your life there are things you have to do. Think of these as the extrinsic motivations of your life. These are things that someone else will notice if you don’t show up. If you’re late for work, your supervisor will not be happy. Forget an assignment in school and your professor will mark you accordingly. Things you have to do are usually external consequences if they are not done.
Then there is the next category, things you want to do. This one is easy because this is the one you think about the most. While your sitting in the lecture hall or your cubicle, you are already thinking about whom you want to hang out with and where you want to go. This category of your life is the intrinsic motivation. In other words, your pleasure/entertainment time. This is the category that most of us (and by most I mean all) tend to think about the most. And let’s face it, as North Americans we are programmed for this. We are told to count down the minutes till freedom is upon us and once the shackles of external consequences are off, it’s time to…(insert your own distraction here).
Then there is a third category of your life but one that is less thought of. Things you need to do aren’t as easy to quantify. This is the part of your life that is seldom thought of but actually may be the most important part of your life. Think of this category this way; things you need to do are things that require discipline and effort in order to fuel the other two categories of your life. This is the character building part of your life. Something that might fit here is exercise. A discipline that doesn’t increase your bank account (unless you’re a trainer), or doesn’t entertain you (unless you’re one of those work out nuts). But it is a part of your life that requires discipline. Something that is beneficial to you that is solely governed by you. Another one that definitely fits into this category is your Spiritual life.
In your young adult years, you are very nomadic. Moving to different stages of your life. In this time, faith communities are seldom thought of or sought out. Most times you stumble into something that may or may not fit you. And even if you found this group, the time you devote to it becomes left over time. Without realizing it, you have squeezed out your spiritual growth.
While we know that the things we have to do must be done, and the thing we want to do just comes naturally, things we need to do seems to fall off our to do list. The things we need to do always seems to be a “if there is time left over” part of our lives. And unfortunately for most over-programmed young adults, there never seems to be time for the third category.
Why is the third category so important? It’s simple really when you think about it, things we need to do are things that make us who we are. Whoa, wait a minute? Am I saying that my development lies in this category? The answer is yes. The things we need to do really speak of what is important to us, what is a value to us. It programs what we are becoming. Someone once said that character is built when no one is watching, and that someone is right.
And this brings me back to Star Trek. Engage. Engage means to involve oneself or become occupied; participate. To assume an obligation, to enter into conflict or battle. For 2014 I want you to engage in your spiritual life. To not be passive in what you are becoming but intentionally engage. The opposite of engage of course is to disengage. It looks like this; to release oneself from an engagement, pledge, or obligation, to release from something that holds fast. Break your life down into thirds. A third of your life is spent on things you have to do. A third of your life is spent on things you want to do. And a third of your life needs to be spent things you need to do. Most often we devote one-third to things we have to do and two-thirds to things we want to do. We might squeeze our faith, spiritual development into there “if there’s time” or “if there’s nothing better to do”.
In the book of James it says “But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.” James 1:22-24 NLT. This passage speaks about our ability to “fool” ourselves. Things we need to do are things of growing faith, to engage in our spiritual journey. To dig deep into a spiritual community. When people talk about young adults leaving the church, they phrase it in a way that makes it look like there is an intentional leaving. What if, it’s not as much intentional, as it is unintended. What if the exodus from the church for twenty something’s is more about engagement than turning their backs on God?
This past year is already in the rear view mirror. It is moving away gradually and with some degree of finality. A new year is upon us and presents us with a choice, an opportunity. Will we create space for the things we need to do? Will we with intentionality engage in our faith? Move from passive to participatory? Are we becoming who we were created to be?
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Raja Stone is youth and young adults pastor at Creekside Church in Waterloo, Ontario.