I’m a pastor so it’s part of my job to think about how to help people grow in their lives with God. As a pastor, nothing is more exciting than seeing someone really taking steps to deepen their faith and draw nearer to God. People far more intelligent and spiritual than me have done tremendous work on spiritual development and what it takes to grow. So since they’ve done that, here are five nerdy things that can help you grow.
Read the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
The Space Trilogy is C.S. Lewis’ foray into the world of science fiction. There is space travel, aliens, interplanetary conflict, government conspiracies and the ongoing struggle between good and evil. The Space Trilogy has everything you would expect from great science fiction but with an added spiritual element. Lewis adeptly addresses spiritual issues and humanity’s struggle with sin, while still telling a compelling science fiction narrative. Reading The Space Trilogy also gives you the opportunity to be an elitist nerd and say things like, “I thought I got a lot out the Chronicles of Narnia, too, at least until I read The Space Trilogy.”
Watch Planet Earth
The BBC documentary Planet Earth contains some of the most amazing visuals I have ever seen. I remember being completely blown away by so many of the images, partly because I had never really experienced HD programming before. Documentaries are normally territory for nerds; no one else really wants to watch A History of Renaissance Fairs or Magic: The Gathering and Me. Most people, however, embraced their inner nerd for 11 hours to take in all the beauty and awe-inspiring footage of Planet Earth. I’ve found that watching Planet Earth helps push me to worship God more clearly, as I see and experience the wonder of his creation.
Throw a Halo party
I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent fragging my friends and trying to stick them with plasma grenades, but a lot of my friendships have been strengthened because of those hours. Men and women who enjoy playing video games can deepen their friendships and build a stronger sense of community by spending time together playing Halo. God created us to live life together, so why not come together to work as a team, achieve a common goal and run some people over with a Ghost? There are plenty of ways to grow in community with others, but linking four Xboxes and playing 8-on-8 has to be one of the most fun.
Choose to be good in role-playing games
Every time I play a role-playing game like Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic, I always choose to do good. In a lot of role-playing games, the player is offered the choice of being a villain or a hero, standing up for what is right or doing all sorts of unspeakable wrong. Choosing to do what’s right in a video game, may help eventually influence the choices you make in real life. If you take the opportunity to help a virtual little girl in the village find her cat, perhaps you’ll be willing to help a real little girl in your neighborhood find her cat.
Learn Greek and Hebrew
I took Greek and Hebrew in seminary and I can honestly say there are few things as nerdy as parsing words and studying flash cards. I thought that it would be thrilling to read the Bible in the original languages, that I would find some new and profound meaning that had escaped me in the English. As it turns out, though, I spent so much time trying to understand what I was reading, that any deeper meaning got lost as well. I don’t see a lot of purpose in knowing the original languages. It might be fun, though, to call out your pastor for translating a word wrong when he or she tries to sound smart while preaching.
There are a lot of spiritual disciplines that have been practiced by centuries for people faithfully trying to grow nearer to God; none of these five things come close to those spiritual disciplines. But, if we really do want to grow in our lives with God, why not try redeeming some of our nerdy practices for that very purpose?
What nerdy practices have helped you grow in your life with God?
You’ve described me to a T with these suggestions right down to watching Planet Earth.
Our culture likes to coax nerds into changing themselves to become more like the extroverted womanizer (not even entirely sure how women became an element in this, but it seems to be unmistakably true). I hold that it is deeply inappropriate to devalue the nerd archetype, an individual who comes alive at mention of a moon-rover that depends on a microwave rectenna for power or who has pi memorized to 70 digits. The only real problem I see is that relatively not a whole lot of people share these interests, that isn’t a problem it’s a challenge, a challenge not to seek validation from others but from Christ.
So far I would have to say that Christ asked me to set aside the nerd characteristics and get into others’ lives. When I have obeyed Him I found that he sent people I saw as “cool” my way who expressed great interest in me whenever I did reveal the nerdy side, and some of them reveal they were true bonafied nerds themselves.
My dream is to live to see a society that learns to favor and appreciate nerds in a genuine and demonstrable way. I commit myself to this even if the challenge spans many lifetimes, the alternative would be to betray myself and make myself more like the popular and successful caricature of the age. This is just wrong, every fiber of my being rejects this notion, would I ever have reason to deny what I am? no. I will, however, strive to be exceedingly obedient to my Lord who knows me infinitely more than I do. I just wished I knew what that looked like in any given immediate present tense.
I think that’s the wonderful thing about the body of Christ. Whether we’re nerds, jocks, dweebs or cool kids, we all have the same foundation. As long as that foundation is the same, all the other stuff just isn’t as important. Someone can think I’m a giant nerd for reading the Star Trek Encyclopedia but if we’re both working towards the revelation of God’s kingdom, what does that really matter?
In the end, though, “nerd” and “jocks” are just labels. Labels allow us to dehumanize individuals and keep them at a distance. It’s when we actually engage with people and build relationships that the labels stop carrying any significance. And that goes beyond “nerd” and “jock” to more significant labels like “Baptist”, “Presbyterian” or “Anglican”.