you are what you do

This past Sunday I was pleasantly surprised when I heard there was a guest speaker for church. I thought this was a bit odd especially for a Palm Sunday, but I was excited once I heard who this individual was.

Thom Black, formerly an executive pastor of one of the largest churches in America (Willow Creek), has been in our area for almost a year. Thom is involved in the development of the new major motion-picture studio company that is already under way in my hometown of Plymouth, MA, appropriately named Plymouth Rock Studios. It has been said by some that this will become "Hollywood East Coast" because LA has become so overcrowded and expensive to support the entire film industry.

It is already great to be called "America's Hometown" here in Plymouth, but the idea of a full-blown "Hollywood" studio being built right down the street from us just blows my mind! The final details are being worked out between the studio development team and state committees, but its looking like this is a done deal. They even plan on creating a semi-fictional TV show about a studio execs trying to build a studio in Plymouth! How cool is that??

Wow I need to calm myself down....

Anyways, not only is Thom's participation in this project a reason to listen to him speak, but he also gave a captivating message. If you were looking for a very structured message that could be outlined with lots of scripture references, then you may have lost your mind... This may have been one reason why I was actually interested in what he had to say. He prefaced his sermon by saying this would be the one message he would give if he were told this was his last time at the pulpit.


[attempting to condense an hour message into a few paragraphs...]


The point of his message was "you are what you do." He pointed out that when asked the question "who are you?", most people answer "well I'm an engineer" or "I'm a cab driver" or "I am a high school teacher." But this isn't who we are... thats the job that we hold to earn money to continue living so we can be who we really are in our free time.

He gave the example of a small child. An average 4 year old in a good home does not wake up in the morning and worry if they will be fed. The only thing on a small child's mind is "what will I do today?" It isn't until a child begins to go to school that they are pressured to live the way other people tell them to live. After that, life is a vicious cycle of trying to fulfill other peoples expectations (teacher, boss, spouse, kids).

I'm not exactly sure how he tied all this in, but it clicked in my head somehow. Since I have started living in Newton and working full time, I have had so much free time on my hands. Nobody is telling me what to do and I don't have any commitments besides my job. My attempts to socialize with people in this area has just led me to frustration. I have spent countless hours watching tv lately and just wasting time.

What does this mean about me? Is this who I am? Am I just passing time while I wait for the "real" part of life to come around? Am I simply surviving and just going to work because "this is what people do"? Its hard to deny that there is a deep feeling of emptiness after joining the corporate world and entering adulthood. The phrase that keeps going through my head the past day continues to eat at my complacency and apathy towards life.

"You are what you do."