Let's Do the Work

In all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty. 

-Proverbs 14:23

She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

-Proverbs 31:27

Wanting, learning and doing are not the same things. 

But somewhere, in my brain, I have confused them together. I find myself often spending most of my time and energy in the wanting, less in the learning and hardly any in the doing. This has to change in me if I want to become a disciplined Christian and biblical homesteader. 

I am a self-proclaimed 'gamer' and one of the games that I play the most is Concerned Ape's Stardew Valley. It is a farm life simulation role-playing video game that was published in 2016. In this game players take on the role of a personalized character who inherits their deceased grandfather's abandoned farm and get to know the other characters in the valley and nearby town. 

The key elements of the gameplay revolve around farming, relationships, self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship. It works through a skills system, meaning that the player must increase the character's skills in order to reap benefits and rewards. 

The skills in Stardew Valley are: Farming, Mining, Foraging, Fishing and Combat. You can increase your skill level through practice and reading books about related topics. You start out very small with limited resources, tools and income. But when you consistently practice and learn every day those small investments build up and grow into something much bigger and better. 

But how does this videogame apply to my real life? As my husband and I prepare to become (Lord willing) homesteaders, we have come to realize that we need to do as much practicing and learning as possible. But when you live fulltime in a camper on a rented lot, what you can do is very small. So I, in particular, focused on daydreaming and reading about what I want to do someday instead of focusing on what I can learn about and do now. This is a cycle that I must break. I think this comes down to three things for me: humility, discipline and contentment. And none of those are easy. 

The definition and application of humility can be very subjective. But I think it boils down to being realistic about who you are and accepting that. For me, who I am is very much grounded in my Christian faith and what the Bible says about who I am. I am flawed, broken, sinful and helpless. But I am also a child of God, saved by Christ's sacrifice and empowered by His resurrection to become more like Him. 

I have been given by God what the world would say is a 'small calling.' My purpose is to be just another drop in the bucket. But I am a drop in the bucket that belongs to the same God who holds the very atoms together to form oceans. He is intimately involved in my small calling. I may very much be a Gaffer Gamgee in the vastness of Middle Earth. I may never impact the world but I might someday raise Sam Gamgees that will. But it starts now, even if now feels insignificant at best. 

Practicing discipline while playing Stardew Valley can be hard. But you're not going to get the chicken coop until you pick up the sticks and stones, clear out the trees and boulders, raise the money by selling foraged or farmed goods, and go pay for Robin to build you a coop. And even after three days you'll have a coop but no chickens. 

Stardew Valley basically works on the premise of maximizing your day and practicing good time management. But just because this is how the game is supposed to be played doesn't mean that you have to play it that way. I have seen players that do this extremely well, who are able to complete the game in one in-game year (not a very easy feat). And I have seen players that run around the map trying to decide what to do for the day and therefore don't get much done by the time it's over.

Obviously, play the game on your own timeline and not someone else's. But know that the enjoyment comes from leveling up your skills and reaping the rewards of your hard work. I have spent years of my life, up to this point, living in my own imagination. Dreaming about what I wish my life was like. But unwilling to do the things necessary to make those daydreams a reality. 

The final element, contentment, has been the most difficult for me. We live full time in a camper on a rental lot so the homesteading and prepared living that we can do is limited. This is, honestly, a bit disappointing. Choosing to be content in this season of life is hard. We want to be homesteaders but don't yet have land, we want to grow a big family but are still struggling with a 3-year-long desert of infertility, we want to be self-sufficient but depend on limited storage space and the campground's electric grid. 

So, we start small and consistent. If we are faithful with a little, then we prove that we will be faithful with much more. 

As Mike Rowe, host of the hit podcast How I Heard It, says often: "Way leads on to way." Small decisions, small disciplines, small actions build upon one another and grow into bigger and better things. In the story of Stardew Valley you begin the game as an unknown individual who has just quit their job and has gone to live on a rundown, abandoned little farm. You have no idea what you are doing and have very little money in your pocket. But you have a little dream and you know that the only way to make that little dream a reality is to learn as much as you can and do the work. So let's do the work.