The Amateur

Earlier this week, I posted a quote by Tom Arnold, via Donald Miller, about his reason for writing a book - "I wanted something out there so people would tell me they liked me. It's the reason behind almost everything I do."

I've been rolling that around in my head, and then this morning, I got an email from Reunion pal M. - It's way cool; these two kids dancing the boogie woogie with an ace band playing behind them, and I thought about what Tom Arnold said. I wonder: do those kids do this because they believe people will like them for it? You might want to ckeck it out for yourself and see what you think:

http://www.boogiegroove.ch/video/Dancin%20The%20Boogie.wmv

When you think about all the time and energy that went into just this few minutes of dancing, it makes you wonder: If it's all done so people will appreciate you and tell you they like you, it seems a pretty high price. I mean, hours spent practicing, preparing, keeping yourself fit enough to move like that, avoiding the pecan pie, not to mention the emotional energy spent getting along with your partner (they may not even like each other, you know). Sure, the crowd loves them, and if they're in this so that "people will tell them they like them", a la Tom Arnold, they've succeeded. But it looks to me like they're doing it because it's fun.

You hear this all the time in sports: Children play games because it's fun, games like soccer or basketball or tennis. Some become really good at what they do and play at the collegiate level, and then the very best become professionals, and get paid for "playing". Their "play" becomes their "work". They all ultimately retire, and if they're lucky enough to quit before they get injured, they hold a press conference and say "The game just wasn't fun anymore."

You might say that people also do what they do for the money. But that's not why children do what they do - It's not what starts the ball rolling. Do you think Bret Favre started playing football when he was a kid because of all the money he thought he would make? Children play football, or bang on drums, or cut out paper dolls, or dance, because it's fun. They are, by definition, amateurs, doing what they do for the sheer fun of it.

The late Rev. John Claypool once wrote a little book provocatively titled "God is an Amateur". In the titular essay, he posits that God does what He does not out of a sense of duty, or as Tom Arnold "so people will tell me they like me", but because He loves what He does. For example, He sent His only Son to earth, not because He had to, but because He loved us (John 3:16,17). That's why amateurs do what they do - because they love the "doing" of it.

So maybe we should be more like children, so that our motives can be closer to God's.