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from John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin, Chapter 3. Not the greatest passage from the book… hopefully there will be better quotes from Owen later.

“Men are galled with the sin that hath prevailed over them; they instantly promise to themselves and to God that they will do so no more; they watch over themselves and pray for a season, until this heat waxes cold, and the sense of sin is worn off; and so mortification goes also, and the sin returns to its former dominion. Duties [i.e. spiritual disciplines] are excellent for a healthy soul; they are no physic for a sick soul. He that turns his meat into medicine must expect no great operation. Spiritually sick people can not sweat our this distemper with working. But this is the way of men who deceive their own souls”

It hits every semester like a brick wall. Apathy. Apathy for all things academic. Usually it takes a round of tests to do this. But this semester is different. Even though I have no desire to do any schoolwork already, it has become easier to will myself to work. Why? Because I am convinced that it matters in the long run… that someday I’ll actually use this information. How I remember the days of Physics 208, Thermo, wait EVERY SINGLE class with an ENGR label!! Goodness, looking back I don’t understand what the point of any one of those classes was… We industrial engineers are imaginary engineer, not real ones!!

Anyway, it’s little surprise that this points to a larger principal. Let’s call it the Office Space principal. Work must have perceived value; otherwise, people generally can’t do it without going insane over a stapler or plotting to slowly steal millions of Innitech’s fortune. It’s part of the design. Work is good, very good, but if it has no value, just work for work’s sake, it’s simply inhumane. But let’s face it… there’s awful, boring, tedious, deskwork to be done. Someone has to do it… and it’s that kind of work I loathe. Is it because I lack the humility or because work must have a perceived value? Both. Still, I don’t want to really live in a 40+ hour a week world where I don’t think that my work has some valuable. Thankfully, I have the option, which is why these spells of laziness and apathy are easy to cure.

Last weekend was all about war. Yes, I was back in Dallas helping the home church with a Disciple Now, obviously. You know you’re in for a crazy weekend when Luke Cagle is making a seventh trip to his car after already bringing into the house a sledge hammer, golf clubs, an AK-47 air soft gun, and a ‘Jesus is My Homeboy’ trucker hat, and this is not even the most bizarre item of the night (that belongs to Cameron and Matt’s pet goldfishes named Optimus Prime and Cheator). By the time my much appreciated partner Ross Taylor and I learned everyone’s named, our ten junior guys decided bananas were best used as a projectile with cars for a target. It was only a Cold War, until one driver did not take too kindly to his car being assaulted with fruit. So he proceeded to charge the house, attempting to break the door down. Thankfully he only succeeded in breaking a window. Where was my take-no-prisoners leadership during all this? Looking for Risk, the ultimate war game! Are you getting the idea that it was a weekend of war, yet?

Saturday morning, I taught how the Roman legions fought, relating it to Colossians 2:6-7 where it talks about walking with Christ and being rooted in Him. Even the AK-47 was a prop! Later these men began a silent war against the other junior ladies, but the most vicious war had yet to be declared.

That battle came during the early afternoon in the park behind the house. The weapon of choice was again fruit. This time the golf clubs came out, and all I can say is that fruit looks pretty good off a 3 Wood. Later the war changed to golf balls and baseball bats. Do not be on the receiving end of this game! I think we split a golf ball against a tree because it was moving at such a high velocity. The only reason I’m unsure is because it’s practically impossible to see a golf ball once an aluminum bat has made contact with it. Of course our weekend would not be complete if we did not end with a good war movie… Ok, Star Wars III isn’t exactly a great war movie, but it worked at pacifying our group into a deep sleep.

Ya know what my final thought is after the weekend? What a great group of guys! I wish I could spend more time with them.