On fear of hardship and work

From time to time, in the life of a married man, he is briefly relieved of the responsibilities of work and family life, and for a brief moment, he is returned to the state of bachelorhood. On the one hand, these moments act as a type of oasis in that he is reminded of the joys of being on his own and coming up with his own schedule. On the other hand, these moments are times of terrible desert, reminding the man of his utter helplessness and insufficiency. In short, when Liz and Alan left for Memorial Day weekend, I found that I could stay out as late as I wanted, but the apartment and the food were both missing something terribly important.

However, this post is not meant to be about the utter dependence of a man on his family (though that is certainly worthy of a post.) This post is meant to explain what I learned from what I did during the weekend. And what I did was this: I immersed myself in the worlds of other people through the lenses of assorted professional filmmakers trying to win various awards so that they can make money. In other words, I watched a number of documentaries because I finished my book on the first day and didn't know what new book to start.

Thus, I found myself Sunday night sitting in my office becoming acquainted with three young men from the Sudan. The specific documentary I watched was "God Grew Tired of Us", a terrible name for a rather good story (it was made by National Geographic, what can you expect). This particular documentary followed the story of three young men who were just children at the beginning of the civil war in Sudan. These three young men, accompanied by thousands of children, fled their homes out of fear of violence and trekked all over Sudan, into Ethiopia, and finally into Kenya. There, the UN settled them in a refugee camp until the violence was over, and so there they have been stuck for over a decade.

However, in the early 2000's, the United States agreed to allow some of these children, nicknamed "the lost boys and girls," to come to the US as refugees. I assume they did this out of humanitarian concerns and not simply as a premise for a good documentary. Anyways, this documentary follows three of these young men for five years as they become acquainted with living in the United States. During their first years, the young men face a number of staggering obstacles, including retaining their own culture, finding jobs, discerning how to help the people back home, etc. Any one of the obstacles they had to face would have been tremendous on its own, and together they make you wonder how these young men will ever survive.

But they do, and they don't just survive, but at least two of them seem to truly thrive in their own environments. And one of the characteristics that seems to mark each of these young man is a fearlessness when it comes to work. Despite having seen incredible suffering and having been dealt by life one of the worst hands possible, each of these young men were so focused on what they wanted that they were willing to work as hard as possible to achieve it. Indeed, all three young men work two or three jobs, sending back to Africa significant portions of their pay so as to better the lives of the people there. In fact, their dedication to their goals reminded of something I once read about dedication:

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9: 24-27

The tenacity and perseverance that these young men displayed in trying to better their earthly circumstances reminded me of what I should be doing to better my eternal circumstances. So often in life, it seems that we aim for the easiest way instead of the best. We hope that if we put in the minimal amount of effort possible, we'll sneak by and still have laurels for us to rest on. I know that one of my great temptations is to avoid something when it's hard; to say, "I don't have time; I need to rest."

Yet, I also know that this is not what I truly want, not in this life at least. In this life, we are called to work in the vineyard, to bear the heat of the day with the Lord. We shouldn't want to be workers who lounge around all day, hoping to be called into the vineyard right before quitting time. We shouldn't look to shrug off our crosses when the Person we are walking next too is Our Heart's Desire. Every day, we are given the opportunity through our work to come closer to Christ, and so often through laziness we fail. Yet, if three young men from the Sudan are willing to work three jobs in order to have a better life, shouldn't we be willing to do so much more in order to have eternal life? In order to gain Him?