Do it Yourself

There was a time, long ago, when you had to do everything for yourself. If you lived on a remote farm, you had to grow your own food, harvest it, cook it, and serve it to your family. Many people created their own clothing, indeed even created the cloth out of which it was made. All of your trash and refuse was yours as well. You had to gather it and burn it or otherwise dispose of it.

Toys were made for children by their parents. Bullets for hunting were made by men pouring lead into molds. Every loaf of bread was prepared by hand by women kneading dough on worn tabletops. That sounds like a romantic ideal. But the downside is this: if you do everything yourself, you can’t do as much in life. Your whole life consists of providing food and clothing to yourself and your family.

In the modern world we all specialize. We spend our time doing one or two things very well. Some of us teach children, others grow food, still others drive the food to market. When we are done consuming, a specialist comes to take away our trash.

I doubt that many of us would want to go back to a life where people did everything for themselves. And I doubt many of us would be equipped to do so in any case.

But don’t you know, somewhere down inside, that we lose something precious when we farm out every aspect of our lives?

There is a rather unique spiritual discipline that most people do not talk about. That is the discipline of doing something for yourself. You can’t do everything, but you could pick one or two thing and take the time and trouble to do them yourself. Maybe you decide to make a loaf of bread for your family once a week. Maybe you tell stories around the fire instead of letting the television tell stories for you. I don’t know what you need to do, but trust me, you need to do something yourself.

I was touched by Rev. K.C. Wahe’s description of burning his own ashes for use at his church’s Ash Wednesday service. It was work, but it was something worth doing himself.

Gordon Atkinson, Real Live Preacher