How much does your life weigh?

Imagine you are wearing a backpack. Feel the straps digging into your shoulders.  Imagine everything you have is in that bag: your clothes, your appliances, your house, everything.

Now try to walk. Hard, isn’t it?  That’s what we do with our lives—we weigh ourselves down.

Now imagine you set the backpack on fire. Everything burns up.  You wake up with nothing.  Now you have a new backpack. Fill it up again, but this time not with the stuff in your life.  This time, fill it up with things you truly value.

Perhaps you recognize the words above. If you saw the movie “Up in the Air” with George Clooney you remember it as part of his talk.   The movie features Clooney as one of the most elite travelers of his time, spending over 300 days a year in airplanes in a job where he goes places to fire people because the heads of those companies do not have the guts to do it themselves.

I watched the movie going to Greece. I found myself mesmerized. I watched it coming back. Now, others I know who watched to movie give it about a C+ or B-, and that is fair. But while my values pretty much reflect the antithesis of Clooney’s in the movie (which is sort of the point, so watch it for yourself), I found myself moved to reflect on life, particularly where I am at this season of life.

I have elite flyer status with Delta. I just took Hannah to Manhattan for free because Delta gives me a free companion ticket regularly. Next week I will fly to Alabama for my Mom’s cancer surgery (thanks for praying) for free because of frequent flyer miles. I get free first class upgrades all the time. There are advantages of being “elite.”

But after watching the movie and seeing Clooney pack and unpack in seconds (note: I packed for Greece in minutes, and took everything I needed in my normal carryon and computer bag—scary), I did a few calculations.

Our son is a senior in college this fall, and our daughter a senior in high school. In their lifetime I have spent almost 3.5 years sleeping in hotels in other places.

That is a lot of time.

In the lifetime of my marriage to Michelle (28+ years) I have spent fully one-seventh of my life away.

That being said, I am confident that in 98% of these trips I have been doing exactly what God called me to do. Others I know travel far more for the ministry to which God has called them. Having an amazing wife who genuinely loves ministry has made it not only easy but also worthwhile. I prayed early on that our children would not regret or resent ministry because of my lifestyle; they actually love ministry and love traveling.  That is a tribute to Michelle.

I am also amazingly grateful for the opportunities the Lord has given me.  In just this year I have spoken at more places and met more people than I would have thought possible in a lifetime when I started seminary.

I have preached in many of the greatest churches in America. I have spoken at some of the greatest universities, and met some of the most amazing people of all ages. I have traveled all over the globe, and most of the time someone else paid for all of this.

In the movie, when Clooney got the news he was being grounded he took the news about as well as a middle school girl whose parents just grounded her from her phone (not that a middle school girl has to have a cell phone).  But I am grounding myself.  Unlike Clooney, I am ridiculously excited about this!

I am getting off the road to pour my life more into my family, my students, and in a very real way in my local church.  I will still travel some and speak to leaders and train student pastors and so on, but on a more limited schedule.

I want to shake less hands of people I will never meet again and wash more dishes in my house.

I want to spend more time with my family at the dinner table than in a restaurant with others.

I want to hang out with the friends of my children more than students, as great as they are, I hardly know.

I want to have more time for my students, those especially so hungry to pour their lives out for God. They need me more than a megachurch congregation, or any other for that matter.

I am so honored to speak at places I have.  But in the coming days on Sundays, overwhelmingly, you will find me not at another church or in some airport. You will find me off Burlington Mill Road in Wake Forest, NC, at Richland Creek Community Church.

We have an American born philosophy called utilitarianism. You know, might makes right, bigger is better, etc.  I have decided to trade speaking to thousands of different people all over the country to teaching dozens of the same people.

After all, Jesus never sought the crowds; He poured Himself into a dozen who changed the world. I want to be like Jesus.

At one point in the movie someone, a family member told Clooney, “You’re awfully isolated the way you live.”  He replied in a huff: “Isolated? I’m surrounded [by people].”  But this was a very, very lonely man. Proximity does not guarantee intimacy in relationships.

I love people. And I love the thrill of standing before people, teaching the Word. But I am called to be a mentor much more than a public speaker.  If you identify the core of your passion for God, the sweet spot where you really find great joy and effectiveness for Jesus, what is it?

Not every need is a call.

Not every opportunity is a call.

Just because you can do something does not mean you should.

I know the routine. I know how to work a crowd, and if I let the opportunist who lives so powerfully in me have control, I will travel more, speak to more, and at the end of the day, truly impact far fewer for the Kingdom.

Sometimes the best thing a child can have happen in his life is to be grounded.  I think for me, the best thing I can do for Jesus is to ground myself so I can be more effective investing in less people, the people I care about more than any other.

I wonder: could there be some area of your life where you need to be grounded as well? Sometimes we do not need a TO DO list, we need a STOP DOING list.

Beginning August 1, I will stop traveling as much. Not stopping completely, mind you, but going from 70+ events to 30, and being at my home church 40+ Sundays instead of preaching 40+ elsewhere will make a pretty dramatic difference.

I will let you know how it goes.

About Alvin Reid

Hi and welcome! I am Alvin Reid, a follower of Jesus Christ, husband to Michelle, father of Josh and Hannah, and minister of the gospel. I teach at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Southeastern College at Wake Forest in NC. I love people and have been blessed to meet a lot. I live to equip a generation of young men and women to change the world, to advance the great movement of God in our time.For the Christ follower, life is a mission trip-take it!