There is a wise way to “waste” time!!!!!
I am an Irishman in heart and in habit. Spending time with close friends shooting the breeze, telling stories, and catching up is like breathing to a celt. It does me good to know that my social instincts have redeeming value. According to Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, there is virtue in what is perceived to be “wasting time”. In his post today entitled, On the Virtue of Wasting Time, he writes:
The greatest testament to the power of wasted time in the history of the church is surely Luther’s Table Talk. A collection of anecdotes and sayings collected by Luther’s closest friends, it reflects the full range of Luther as pastor, mentor, Christian and friend. Reading the comments, from advice to young preachers (`The sixth mark of a good preacher is knowing when to stop.’) to comments on lawyers (`One only studies something as dirty as law in order to make money’) to general observations on life, some of which don’t bear repeating on a polite blog such as this, I suspect Luther’s table companions learned more about life and ministry while drinking beer and having a laugh with the Meister than in the university lecture hall.
Numerous applications come to mind: seminary is the people with whom you strike up friendships (a point which must be taken into account as seminaries move towards more distance education);friendships (real, embodied friendships that are not exclusively mediated through pixels) are crucial to staying the course of ministry — laughter in the face of adversity and hardship not only being vital in this regard but also, of course, an almost exclusively social phenomenon that requires company; drinking beer with friends is perhaps the most underestimated of all Reformation insights and essential to ongoing reform; and wasting time with a choice friend or two on a regular basis might be the best investment of time you ever make.
If only half of what Dr. Trueman is saying is true, then there is hope for me yet. Besides, don’t underestimate us fun-loving Irishmen. We saved modern civilization after the fall of Rome. In between visits to the pub, that is.
