What a challenging day this is turning out to be. Not in terms of “things to do” or “stuff that has to be accomplished”. I’ve worked hard and have knocked an entire page-worth of “to-do’s” off of my ever-evolving list. I’ve run errands, I’ve made phone calls, I’ve paid bills, I’ve cleaned the house top to bottom, I’ve tackled several items that just could no longer wait.
No, the challenge has not been in the course of the events of the day. Rather the challenge has been on a completely different plane altogether. Somewhere between mental and spiritual. Somewhere between temporal and eternal. Somewhere between what truly matters and what is truly insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
The title for my blog post today comes from a play by Oscar Wilde, first performed 116 years ago this coming February 14th. The full title of the play is “The Importance of Being Earnest: a Trivial Comedy for Serious People.”
The word that keeps coming back to my mind, though, is “EARNEST”. I don’t think I’ve really ever thought about the word until today, had never actually looked up the meaning. Here is what Dictionary.com has to say about being earnest:
1.
serious in intention, purpose, or effort; sincerely zealous: an earnest worker.
2.
showing depth and sincerity of feeling: earnest words; an earnest entreaty.
3.
seriously important; demanding or receiving serious attention.
I want to be earnest in my seeking of God, and so often I am not. For example, I am in real need of earnest scripture work today, and yet I can not seem to settle my soul or mind down enough in order to do so. Instead, I have worked hard at things that are important, but not things that are eternal. I neglected to start this day with God, and when I neglect to do so, I know the outcome. And I am experiencing that outcome.
I don’t know what the future holds. I am in the process of applying for graduate school/seminary. My hopes are high. My fears are high. Who, in the middle of their life, starts over and embarks on something for which she has no financial backing? Someone who has no other choice. Someone who does not want to waste their life. Someone who should be much more earnest and intentional.
Do not misunderstand me—there certainly is a place for levity, as Oscar Wilde knew. If you were reading carefully, you see that his play about being earnest was a comedy—a “comedy for serious people”. If there is anything that is accurate, my life certainly is comical. There are things that seem to only happen to me. I blunder through life, with what seems to be more than my fair share of hilarity in everyday living. But I am also what would be described as a “serious” person. I think. I think deeply. Probably more deeply than I should. Which is, in and of itself, hysterically funny if one really thinks about it.
I have just recently finished reading three books, that have all seemed to converge into one main theme. The title of the first book is Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper. It is exactly about what one would assume it would be about, upon reading such a title. The other two books are Reclaiming Adoption by John Piper, Scotty Smith, Richard Phillips, Jason Kovacs and Radical by David Platt. I would recommend the combination of reading those 3 books nearly simultaneously, to anyone who is yearning for an earnest life. Life is too short to waste spinning your wheels, searching for something that is elusive and not lasting anyway. Seek relational living. Seek missional giving. Seek earnesty.
The ESV records 34 uses of a form of the word “earnest”.
1 Peter 4:8 states:
8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
Hebrews 6:11-12 says
11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
And Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 3:8-10:
8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord. 9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, 10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?
Am I “loving earnestly” with a love that covers a multitude of sin? Am I showing “the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end”? Am I “praying earnestly night and day” that I may see others face to face and supply what is lacking in their faith?
Am I living earnestly?
I am preaching more to myself than I am to any who might read this. Like I mentioned, it’s been a challenging day. I have battled irrational fear and the continued weightiness of depression. I need to do scripture work. I need to parent well today. I need to push myself hard, hard, hard—forward, forward, forward.