Why is Rural Life so Mundane? [43]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, Pastor TJ Freeman addresses the feelings of monotony and insignificance that can come with living in rural areas. Using personal anecdotes and biblical principles, TJ encourages listeners to recognize their unique purpose as representatives of God. He emphasizes the importance of living out the values of love, joy, and peace, and how to find joy in sharing God's word with others. TJ also discusses the significance of fostering a healthy church community and how you can be a part of that in your rural area. Ultimately, he reminds listeners that their lives, though they may feel mundane, are integral to God's broader plan to display His glory.

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook
• Email: tj@brainerdinstitute.com

Transcript

Okay. I'm going to describe a sport and you tell me if you can figure out what it is. Ready. Left turn. Left Turn. Left Turn. That's right. I just narrated the entire sport of nascar. That's what happens in an auto race. They just keep on turning left. Do you ever feel like life is a little like that? Kind of monotonous and mundane.

It's another day. I'm doing the same thing again and again and again, and I'm not sure I like that. Well, if you've ever felt like life was getting a little mundane and wondered what you should do about those thoughts, stay tuned. 'cause that's what I'm talking about on this episode of Back to Rurality.

Well, welcome back to another episode of Back to Rurality. My name is TJ Freeman and I am a pastor who lives just like you in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes I call it in the middle of stinking nowhere, but that's just when I'm having a bad day. Usually in the wintertime, well life. In the middle of nowhere can be especially monotonous.

You see the same people all the time. You go to the same job or to the same class or whatever. And it's not that interesting, but more than that, it can feel a little less purposeful. Sometimes it can feel like the really important stuff is happening in bigger places, but here you are out there in the pasture just kinda doing your thing and it doesn't really matter much.

That's a tough way to live. You know, I remember a few years ago when I was struggling with some depression that was connected to not really liking living in the middle of nowhere. And let's be honest, it had been a really long time since I'd had Chick-fil-A.

Okay. You would've been the same if you were in my shoes. But anyway, I'm driving down the road, on a road called Route Six, and I've driven Route six my entire life. When I was born in the hospital, they drove me home on Route six. When I would go to school in the mornings, I went on Route six. To work, route six.

Everywhere I went, I had to take some time down Route six, and I started to get bored with it. I started to get frustrated by the monotony, same views. I mean, they're beautiful. They really are. But when you see the same thing every day. It just got dull to me and I had this feeling of like, I wanna see new stuff.

I want excitement. And, you know, that was poor thinking on my part. That's a topic for another day. The reality is I get what it's like to feel like man out here in the middle of nowhere it just doesn't feel special.

And you can, if you're not careful, connect your worth to your perception of your place. So if you feel like you live in a place that's called the middle of nowhere, because it really doesn't matter that much. You're not alone, if there's a part of you that feels a little like, well, maybe my life really doesn't matter that much.

And you could wonder at times, well, what does God really have me here for? And if you're asking that question, I'm really thankful that you're asking that question because you should be. In Genesis one, we learned that God made you, and he made you in his image, with the purpose of exercising his dominion.

So that the earth could be filled with his glory as humans, God's representatives spread to the ends of the earth. And God doesn't see your place or your life as unimportant at all. You realize God knit you together when you were in your mother's womb. He made you exactly like he wanted you to be, and then he picked some things for you.

He picked your parents. Dunno how you feel about that. Hopefully you have great parents. Maybe you have tough parents. Either way, you can't deny the reality that God picked them for you. He picked, your siblings came from the same womb as you. He picked where you would be born and he picked the time in human history when you would be born.

God made a lot of choices on your behalf because. He has a plan and a purpose for you at this time, in this place, around these people, and that really matters because his plan includes displaying his glory through you. And so here's how, as a Christian who lives in the middle of nowhere, you really need to think. You need to realize that as a representative of God, I'm meant to show other people what he's like.

So when you go into the post office, you stop by the gas station, you run into the grocery store, you wave at your neighbor, whatever. There's a sense in which you need to bear in mind the reality that you're supposed to show all of those people what God is like.

God's got you there in that community for that, and God sent his word. Jesus is the word made flesh, and he means for his people to also take the word to others. So not only are you there to represent God by the life that you live, the joy that you show, you know, all of that stuff. You're also there to talk to other people about God. That is fundamentally sewn into the fabric of who you are.

It's why God made you, and sometimes part of the reason you feel down or discouraged or whatever. Is because you're not thinking of yourself as Christ's representative. You're not taking seriously the responsibility to open your little yapper and to say things about the Lord to other people. 'cause it's scary and you gotta live next to them or be in class with them or whatever.

And it's hard to put yourself in a position where other people think maybe you're strange because of your relationship with God. Nevertheless, you're going to spend eternity with the Lord if you're a Christian. This life is just a little vapor. It's here today. It's gone tomorrow. Do you ever take the spray bottle and you just spray out a little mist?

It goes. More of pfft actually. And the mist floats in the air just for a second, and moments later it's gone forever. That's what our life is like. The people you're around today, you're only gonna be around for a short time. And you are actually there on assignment sent by God to do this kind of work. So let him take that little puff of your life that's a vapor and use it to show his glory.

And here's the sweet thing. You're gonna find more delight in doing that than in just generally being accepted by the people around you anyway. There is joy in telling other people about the Lord. One of my favorite things as a pastor is hearing people come in and say, you're not gonna believe it. I finally got to have that conversation with my coworker.

Or man this girl on the basketball team asked the question and I told her about Jesus and it was really encouraging. I'm so excited that stuff happens all the time because God who made us to be his representatives, fills us with the kind of joy when we do the things we were made to do. At the end of the day, this is what the whole world is looking for.

Everybody wants to know who they authentically are. Well, you know who you authentically are. You're an image bearer of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the genius who made the whole universe, the powerful, mighty one who could speak it into existence. The one who loved you enough to make you and to call you into his service after making himself known to you so that you could turn from your sin to follow him by faith.

It's really amazing who you are. Ain't nothing mundane about that baby. So as you go about your life in your rural community, don't make it like nascar. Left turn, left turn, left turn. Make it about demonstrating the glory of God by living out the fruit of the spirit, things like love and joy and peace. Show others what the character of God is like in doing so.

By figuring out your spiritual gifts, not by taking some silly inventory, but by asking what am I good at? What is the Lord entrusted to me? What, what do I get excited about and leaning into those things. Also by stewarding your life, thinking about all the resources you have and how they belong to the Lord, and how you might use them for his glory.

I mean, these are the kinds of things that you can get after, that will bring you so much joy, even in the middle of nowhere. And here's what you gotta realize, when you do that, you're making statements about God that he uses to show, not just other humans what he's like, but as we see in the book of Ephesians, the church, the people of God make the glory of God known all the way to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

God wants to use your life for that. If there's not a healthy church in your community, I believe you're a part of the solution to that little problem. God wants his glory to be seen from that place, and that's just something I want to keep in your mind all the time as you think about your life in the middle of nowhere.

Pray that God would bring a healthy church to your community and that if it's his will, that you would be a part of it. And you can take a first step by just gathering with another Christian to pray about that together regularly. Maybe even fast once a week. Skip a couple meals and pray that the Lord would do that work in your town.

Well, what have we talked about today? We've realized that it's easy for us to drift into frustration when we live in the middle of nowhere, a lack of significance, feeling that way at least, feeling like things are mundane. And the way to overcome those is not to go to some like self-help manual, but to realize who you are, who God has made you to be, and to lean into that to be his representative who shows off his glory in your community, which is part of the ends of the earth.

And if you live in the middle of nowhere, it probably feels like the ends of the earth. God wants to be glorified there, and he wants to be glorified through you there. What a sweet and special responsibility it is you have. Hey, if you have any questions about this episode or any other episode, I'd love to talk to you.

You can reach out to me, tj@brainerdinstitute.com. And remember, this is a, this podcast is a ministry of the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry. We want to see a healthy church in every rural community, and you're part of that. So for now, why don't we get back to life? Back to rurality.