Homework is boring

Have you every felt like "doing devotions" is more like homework that anything else? 
Yeah me too. 
For most of my life. 
Really until about 3 months ago my "daily devotions" felt mostly like something I had to do because I love Jesus. More like a chore than anything else. While spending time with God should be more like a date with my wife- just spending time with her, it tended to be more like unloading the dishwasher - which I do because I love her... but it's boring... and I don't really like it.

Here's the problem: spiritual development tends to get relegated to a one size fits all remedy for any spiritual trouble. We have a tendency to reduce our time with God to a script that stifles individuality and creativity. As a result many believers find themselves doing homework in order to earn a celestial grade instead of connecting with their creator in a beautiful, relational way. 

The reality of the relationship God seeks with us is that, as any relationship, it is individual and unique. There are basic actions and emotions that define every human relationship. Any two marriages will have varying levels of overlap in the way the man and woman interact. Conversely, any two marriages will have distinct differences that simply will not work if applied directly to another relationship. Unique individuals interact with each other in unique ways. This is true of marriage and it is true of following Christ. Each individual - though there are levels of overlap and foundational actions and emotions - connects with God in unique and personal ways. Rather than being an assembly line of uniformly made creatures we exist as a mosaic in which each distinct line and color adds beauty and interest to the whole. In Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas identifies 9 distinct ways in which humans connect with God (Thomas, 2015). I don't want to recount the book to you. You should just buy or borrow it. What I do want to do is move you. 

I want you to get excited about the fact that God has made you as a unique individual and wants to connect with you as a unique individual. Then I want you to take that excitement and channel it into action. Do something about it. Figure out how God has uniquely made you to connect with him. Take a walk in the woods, hang out with a homeless person, read a theology book full of big words, attend a liturgical service somewhere, get really quiet and meditate on God's goodness. Try it. Figure it out. 
Read the book about it. Then, whatever way God has made you to connect with him, do that. And if it doesn't look like someone else's "daily devotions" who cares?! You shouldn't. As long as you have found a way to spend time with God every day so that you get to know him better, cool. Do that.

God is not a cosmic principle here to make sure you perform well in class. God is a Father-Savior-Comforter-Counselor-Friend who wants you to know him and spend time with him. 

In a Hurry

Modern, westernized people exist in a distinctly hurried culture. Driven by accomplishment and excellence, many spend their lives moving from one meeting, project, or commitment to the other with little thought for the things that do not seem urgent. Everything from school deadlines to time critical work assignments to sales that “end tonight” and “can not be missed” drive us to overlook and undervalue things that do not require attention or provide immediate value. In his book Addicted to Hurry, Kirk Byron Jones argues that this dependance on speed and achievement is more than just a cause of stress and anxiety in our culture. It is a spiritual problem. Jones compares it to idolatry in which something other than God gets our first fruits of time, attention, and energy. He goes on to say “Idolatry, no matter how innocent and unintended, leads to unnecessary losses and sacrifice (Jones, 2003).” This “addiction to hurry” is causing tension in every area of modern life. 

There are a lot of reasons we're driven to continual motion. Success has been equated with accomplishment. Personal value and identity has been equated with success. The ability to be happy and find fulfillment inevitably comes from knowing ones identity and believing in ones own value, therefore we hurry to accomplish and succeed for the sake of identity and value. Perhaps the most prevalent issue driving people to hurry is simply other people. Jim Rohn, author and motivational speaker, once said that a human being is the average of the five people with whom he or she spends the most time (Groth, 2012). According to scripture, people are created as relational beings in the image of a relational God. Humanity needs others for health and identity development. A culture that has grown to center on success by numbers, is a culture that shapes people into its image. If the five closest friends of any given person are those who reflect the culture then the person will do the same. We are driven to hurry by the culture we live in, through the people around us. Many millennials grew up in homes that strove for an idilic picture of success. Achievement has long been associated with more speaking engagements, more projects, more meetings, and more authority. Escaping from a culture of hurry, even for followers of Jesus who feel the dissonance between hurried culture and a God who speaks in the small and still voice, is a difficult and, often, painful process. It requires a community shift in which people, who inevitably shape each other, choose to embrace different values.  

The core premise of the Gospel is that God values people enough to sacrifice himself for them even though people have no value to add to him, no positive accomplishment, and, in fact, stand with red in the ledger because nothing they could accomplish would pay the balance of sin. To accept the Gospel of Jesus as true means to embrace a new set of values that stand counter to the never resting drive of culture. The tension comes in that many followers of Jesus have allowed his truth to transform their “do nots” but have not surrendered their “dos.” In other words, while much has changed in our lives in terms of big visible sin, we have not even considered that Jesus might want to change even the things we do that many consider to be good and healthy. The foundation to a life not enslaved by hurry is a life fully surrendered to Christ. Jones says that “Cultivating new understandings about things such as work, rest, and even your views on what God desires of you is key to breaking hurry addiction (Jones, 2003).” A life that holds nothing back from Christ will resist the urge to be defined by anything, good or bad, that is not from Christ. Living fully surrendered means refusing to allow anything to define our value and identity outside of the cross of Christ. Our worth comes from the value assigned to us on the cross. We do not need to accomplish anything or to succeed at anything to feel valuable. It is because God has decided our value that we can strive for accomplishment without fear of becoming a failure. Even if we fail our value will not be diminished. The identity we receive from Christ is what drives us to accomplish things that He has made us to accomplish. Therefore, unending accomplishment and constant motion will not have a foothold on a surrendered Christian’s identity if that Christian is willing to center every decision in prayer and listening. 

From the initial place of surrender to the new identity given by Christ, believers must then choose to embrace a different set of values. We must orient our lives around the things that fuel us, not the things that burn the fuel. If our identity and value comes from Christ, he must be given the first place in time and energy. Family and close relationships are responsibilities and blessings that must come second in priority. From there we must choose things that give us life and energy. If we are to have the energy and focus to accomplish the things God has purposed for us to accomplish we must take time to rest and energize in the essentials of life. 

      So the question for each of us is simple: what fuels you and how will you refuel every day? How will you connect with Christ to remind yourself of your intimate value? How will you surround yourself with people who shape you in his image? The idea of taking a new set of values is novel and interesting, but until we make a plan and put it into action it will just be an idea. 

Groth, A. (2012, July 24). You're The Average Of The Five People You Spend The Most Time With. Retrieved June 09, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/jim-rohn-youre-the-average-of-the-five-people-you-spend-the-most-time-with-2012-7

Jones, K. B. (2003). Addicted to hurry: spiritual strategies for slowing down. Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press.