Squeeze

I have been training for my new job the past two days where I have (surprisingly) learned that training is a lot of fun if you get into it.  I am the screaming toes champion, a finalist in hooyah!, and much more knowledgeable in maintaining classroom behavior and establishing academic day camp curriculum. 

Of all the good things about the past few days, one other thing has really stuck out to me.  All the employees are independent contractors, so we have time sheets that we fill in to get paid.  Every day I watch and participate in this process where we all count up hours, round up whenever possible, and try to squeeze as much as we possibly can onto the paper.  I notice in myself and others that we immediately see what maximum time we can put down.  We think, “Can I get away with including lunch?” or “Surely we can include the total scheduled time we are supposed to be here (never mind the fact we got there a little late and finished an hour early).”

We all do this.  We try to squeeze every possible benefit from a situation.  In this particular example, once I noticed this, it disgusted me.  I don’t want that type of thinking where money drives my interactions to the point of mild lying.  I don’t want to be ruled by that ‘grabbing for whatever I can get’ mentality.

It happens all the time.  Take any lawsuit as a case.  A process that should be set up to ensure that similar bad things don’t happen to other people or to bring awareness to companies or individuals of something gone wrong is being distorted and now functions merely as a way to squeeze whatever gain you can from someone else. 

Or even when someone is giving stuff away for free (as promotion or whatever it may be).  We take whatever crappy, plastic giveaway toys we can get, just to discard them when we get home.  Because we are so hardwired to take all that we can get, especially if we don’t really do anything to get it.

It doesn’t seem healthy.  It feels like a loss of moderation and self control.  Sure, you are technically entitled to this stuff, but will it really make your life better?  Will it really provide any good or satisfaction in anyone’s life?

A lot of people I respect would probably say I am crazy to not put down the max hours I could on my time sheet – that it is just being smart to get as much money as I could.  Granted, but maybe being smart is not what this life is all about.

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Last night, I was studying a passage of the Bible, the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, where Paul speaks of focusing on Christ rather than other ‘good’ people (teachers) or even ourselves.  He says we should be foolish, or in other words humbly faithful to a kind of crazy message (salvation from a dead ‘criminal’).  We should not seek wisdom, but rather foolishness.

What does embracing this foolishness mean?  Does this mean that we should deny anything that would be ‘smart’ to do?  Does it mean that we should just empty ourselves and wait for God to fill us up?  Is God’s message to us in Christ too simple – must we dumb ourselves down to understand it?

No. Of course the message is not simple at all – it goes beyond human imagination and philosophy.  Of course we should not just become idiotic and think God will lay in our laps all that we need to know of Him or do.   Just think about what kind of person that would make you.

We must zealously seek after God and squeeze whatever little bit of knowledge and experience of Him out of our lives that we can.  That is why Paul is such a good example of what he is teaching here.  He never stopped pursuing God.  He may have been a fool (which is a good thing here) by not relying on himself or the world to fulfill any desire, but he was no idle idiot. 

I have noticed in myself and others that as we get more comfortable with the crucified Christ (as if we ever could be comfortable with that), as we align ourselves more fully to this belief, we often lose steam.  We accept the bare minimum of a spiritual life – whatever God will place in our laps.

This is not the foolishness Paul talks about.  This is not humility.  Humility is not laying down and getting trod upon.  Rather, it is boasting only in him who is in true control.  It is knowing what you are good at and putting all your effort behind that to serve someone else.  It is squeezing all you can out of yourself to better serve and love God.  It is squeezing all you can out of God to better know and follow him.