Only dramatic people have more than a handful of life-altering events.
Some treat graduating high school as a game-changer. I don’t know if I count this milestone or not, because everybody has to leave it eventually. It’s up to the individual as to whether or not they do it with a piece of paper or not. Graduating college might be something that leads to a new life, but, now that I think about it, months after my baccalaureate commencement, I was still serving coffee. Some of you (Kathy) know about this because I wrote a few contentious posts about it.
Friends get married, have kids and/or die. Those events have their impact on our lives, don’t they? I didn’t see much of my married friends until I got a girlfriend (Actual life-changing event) and now I see less of my single friends (Sorry bros). I hate to say it, but I don’t talk to my dead friends- it just doesn’t work like that.
We go to camps and retreats and for those of you with uppity pastors, you go to advances or charges or something like that (One of my friend’s churches doesn’t do retreats, that’s what people do when they’re losing……..yeah). We come home and are super-charged, but I have to ask, does anything really change? Ok, those can have their impact, I might have been introduced to Jesus at a youth conference, but I’ve been back since and I can honestly say, it didn’t do much for me every time. If I’m super vulnerable about it, I’ve come home from camps with more attitude than when I left (and I was a leader at those camps)!
The list goes on… mission trips, new jobs, moving, enlightenment, curiosity, sin, new television shows and world events all leave their mark on our lives, but more and more I’m realizing that they didn’t have the impact the little, quiet moments did. Sitting the the “Taco Bell Arena” (every BSU student hates that name), walking up to shake the hands of people I had never met just to walk away with a piece of paper (Degree=expensive piece of paper) didn’t change me. It was the hours and hours of homework, sleep deprivation and nodding off during lectures that helped me learn to think on broader levels and to see the world in new ways.
Meeting Jesus may have made me into a new man, but that single event didn’t change my character. I had to pray and meditate, read and study, and die to myself over and over and over again trying to kill the attitude that I’ve always seemed to have. I gave up on that a while ago and now refer to it as my constant righteous indignation. But my attempts to change that part of myself through denying it have had their impact, too. I might be just a little wiser because of that effort, even a little more accepting of others, too.
The point is that the big events don’t necessarily mean as much as the little ones.
Maybe
we should pay better attention to those seemingly mundane moments,
and see what impact they’re having in our lives.
Ah, yes! I remember your days as a barista and your stories of how people often tried to introduce you to Jesus because you obviously were a lost soul. You are wise beyond your years, Jake. It really is all about the small moments. Great post, as always.
I kept those tracts… but not for long. They bothered me. Part of me wants to feel bad for baristas and baristos 🙂 but then again, it seems they have no choice but to be saved! So… no pity there.
The 'big' events are a starting place. I want to see a true awakening come to our city, state, and nation where people experience Jesus and His love and power. I pray for it. But my waking up in the morning is just the beginning of the day. Everything I do afterward makes the day a joy or a waste. Okay, I won't ramble on, but great post, Jake.
And a side-note about the whole 'retreat' thing. That's drives me crazy. I guess if you are fully invested and committed to that, then fine, but you should understand that some people aren't and not look down on us poor saps who still go to and plan "retreats." I understand trying to change the perception maybe, but doing the same things and calling it something different is a little ridiculous. Semantics bug me (as well as changing things that don't matter).
Big event do seem to start or end something, don't they?
and semantics… I'm only a little bitter about the LECTURE I got about going on retreats… it's ridiculous!
I found this subject fascinating.
I think that there are very few moments that are truly life changing, but most of the things we do are life-altering.
I also have never been to a retreat. I'd like to go sometime.
It’s true, the things we do on a regular basis have so much impact, and these once or twice in a lifetime things that seem like such a big deal- Nothing.
and I hate to say it, but in my estimation, you aren’t necessarily missing out on the retreat deal.
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