A few years ago I wrote a book about finding a job after college. It was actually a pretty good book – a number of my friends and colleagues have used the ideas to land jobs they love. It followed the formula of so many successful books that came before and since – you outline and crystalize a point of pain or struggle. You point out how someone is missing out on tremendous potential, and that all they need to do to realize that potential is to follow an easy set of steps.
We have a tendency to gravitate towards material like this. It gives us a simple roadmap to follow. Instead of living a life of prudence and responsibility, we can get rich in 90 days with no effort. Instead of dilligently exercising and eating like we should, we can lose 30 pounds in two weeks. Instead of working harder than everyone else and creating amazing products and services, we can load our resumes with action words and memorize answers to interview questions. Instead of
becoming an interesting, genuinely good guy, we can con women into thinking we’re smart, successful and interested in them as people just long enough to take them home.
In a society based almost entirely on instant gratification, we no longer care about the journey – just the destination. We’re not interested in the acquisition of virtue and character nearly as much as the keys to health, wealth and perceived happiness.
Perhaps the foolishness of us all lies on thinking that another time management system or novel web app or stock picking strategy or “prosperity gospel” religion or pick-up line is going to give us anything really valuable. Maybe we bought a lie that says that we can mimic the results of hard work without the hard work.Maybe we’ve convinced ourselves that the end is what matters, when what matters is all the stuff in between.
Looking at my bookshelf, I’m just as guilty as anyone else – maybe more so. Which is why there’s a certain irony when I find myself wondering why my spiritual life can be so lacking at times. Perhaps its because I forget that the whole “Christian thing” is about a relationship, and that there aren’t shortcuts in relationships – at least not in ones that matter. Perhaps the problem is that I’m often uninterested in a God that is wild and unpredictable and, well, very much a person. Perhaps I sometimes would rather have a formula or a set of instructions to follow to get a happy fulfilled life. A genie in a bottle instead of a god, the outcome instead of the relationship. The end without the means.
I wonder where we got the idea that life, in all its fullness, can be had by following 3 easy steps.
