I love the movie Office Space … well, who doesn’t? It’s been a cult classic since 1999. The struggle of the blue-collar office employee who adopts an “I don’t care” attitude toward work and infects his corporation with a Macintosh virus. (Is that even possible?)
There are so many great lines from the movie. Everyone has their favorite.
"You’ve been missing a lot of work lately …" "Well, I wouldn’t say I was missing it …"
I know people who have been Lumbergh, the coffee-drinking boss, for Halloween. And now Swingline even carries red staplers as part of their inventory. So anyway, it was on TV this past week while my friends and I played Texas Hold‘em. (Of course, the new guy won! Rookie luck!) The movie got me thinking as my cards were dealt … (dang it, a 6 and a 2 off suit!)
Office Space is very funny, but I bet a lot of people think about the church that way. I mean, feeling unchallenged, unmotivated, just “phoning it in.” If I got called into the boardroom, what would I tell the “Bobs” if they questioned me?
“I’d say in a given Sunday I probably do about 15 minutes of real, actual worship.”
Question other people, and they might have a hard time explaining “exactly what it is you do here.” It’s been our “job” for so long to come to church and play that role, which I am sure could easily become mundane without challenges and effort.
The surprising thing of the movie is that the main character, Peter Gibbons, decides that from now on, he’s just “not going to go.”
He’s not going to quit, mind you. He’s just not going to go in anymore.
When he’s questioned by a team of efficiency experts, Peter is honest. He’s candid about his workflow, his bosses and what is asked of him. Then Peter “changes his view,” so to speak, and takes down his cubicle wall … with a drill.
So many great parallels, don’t you think?
Would the body care if one day you decided not to go anymore?
What would change if you decided to be honest about how you felt?
Are you sick and tired of the way you have played church your whole life?
Is this all that there is? All that you can look forward to?
What would happen if you were unafraid?
What walls need to come down there?
Granted, what Peter did was outside the norm and status quo, and some of the things that he did were slightly illegal. Well, wait … what other great leaders in the Christian faith ever broke the law? Or stood above the crowd? Or made people mad at them for their efforts?
No, this is not another “feel bad because you don’t do enough in your church” article, or even a call to arms. I’m just looking ahead and noticing that I am probably going to sit in this pew for another 40 some odd years (God willing), and I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t want to become like Peter to the point where one day I wake up and simply don’t care anymore.
Or maybe, the answer lies somewhere in the middle? I don’t want to not care about attending church, but maybe I need to stop caring about other things: what people think, what people expect, what limitations I feel that I have.
I mean, we should think this out first, don’t you think? Not make any rash decisions.
First I’m gonna go out to dinner, and then I’m gonna go back to my apartment and watch kung fu. Do you ever watch kung fu?
I love kung fu.
