Hey Church! This is the final installment of our e-news featuring members of the COTC community reflecting on the last year with gratitude and looking forward to the next in hope. I pray this heartwarming (and hilarious) reflection by Chris McKinley on the gift of work, marriage and something called Shakubuku is as helpful for you as it was for me. Nick

My wife Lyndee and I watched a lot of movies this year. I imagine we weren’t alone in that. But it wasn’t just the pandemic. Movies have always meant a lot to me. I have never been particularly adept at processing emotions in a socially acceptable way. Quoting from my favorite movie scenes is like a release valve. I’m still the weird guy, but I’m the weird guy quoting a relatable scene from a popular movie, and that’s somehow more okay.

One scene that works itself into my life on a semi-regular basis comes from arguably my favorite movie (certainly in the top five): Grosse Pointe Blank. In this particular scene, John Cusack, your hero-to-middling white guys everywhere, is catching up Minnie Driver, your all time favorite jazz-singer and Irish-coast surfer. They have this exchange:

Minnie Driver: You know what you need?

John Cusack: What?

MD: Shakubuku

JC: You wanna tell me what that means?

MD: It’s the swift, spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever.

JC: Ooooh, that’d be good...I think.

I think Minnie is onto something. In fact, Lyndee and I experienced a moment of “Shakubuku” a few years ago. We’d taken our very first overseas trip to Ireland, spending uninterrupted time in each other’s company for the better part of two weeks. We came back *convinced* that the life we had been leading (40 hour work weeks apart from each other, only seeing one another in evenings and on weekends) was not the way for us. We started looking for something that we could do together, full time.

Fast forward a couple of years. I’m building furniture and taking classes and we find ourselves right back in our pre-Shakubuku rhythm. We’ve made some steps towards working together by designing and building furniture for friends out of our garage. But trying to balance that alongside our jobs, my seminary classes, twins, and the restructuring of life around a global pandemic...well, we didn’t see much of each other. I was frustrated, short-tempered, depressed, and generally just a not very pleasant person to be around, let alone be married to.

And then I lost my job.

And God, in His absolute, gob-smacking goodness, did a thing. For the last few years I have sensed the Spirit reshaping my unhealthy and unrealistic ideas regarding the relationship between work and provision. Namely, that work is good (not cursed), that everything that we have is a gift from God, and that sometimes work is the means through which that gift is given. At the end of the day, though, the gift is still a gift. It is unearned. We do not provide for ourselves. We work and God provides for us. 

Losing my job could have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. But it didn’t. It became a moment of “shakubuku.” We found ourselves able to rest in God’s abundant provision. We’re working together. And most importantly, we’re able to be present with one another again.

As 2020 closes out, and 2021 looks to be a banner year in the ol’ Bender family (another movie quote),  I’m grateful for time. Time with my wife and time with my kids. And I’m hopeful that in times both lean and flesh I’ll remember that I’m kept, provided for, and adopted by a dad who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

Chris