Xbox and Boxers

I was able to hang out at North Greenville University this morning with one of our ministry leaders, Dr. Robert Boggs (he teaches there). Aside from spending some time talking to Dr. Johnson, the head of their theology department, I was in the chapel service where Dr. Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary preached the message. Dr. Johnson and I walked in a few minutes into the sermon, but the section I heard was unbelievably convicting. Dr. Akin was teaching on the subject of the Christian life as one of consecration and sacrifice, and he went into detail about the importance of world missions. What really hit home was his take on the current state of world missions in the IMB. After using two specific examples, he made the point that IMB teams in the most difficult missions fields on earth (western africa and the middle east) are made up of 80% women. Where are the men? He went on to lovingly scold the men, telling them to stop sitting in their boxer shorts playing xbox. We can all agree that college guys waste time and generally act like morons right? But here is where he convicted me-the median age of video game players is now 34. It's not just college guys that are wasting their lives on trivial pursuits. The adult men in the church have a stake in this as well. Maybe it's not video games, but the majority of men I know (including myself) have hobbies that take up a fairly big chunk of our time, energy and passion that hold very little real value. Whether it's mastering HALO or being a scratch golfer (neither of which is inherently bad) we as men are so caught up in periferal pursuits that we are not living lives centered around the mission of the church. We (me included) have to repent and reprioritize our time, passion and energy to be kingdom focused.