Life Lessons in Nature: English Ivy
Are you feeling:
Listless
Lacking purpose
Tired of everything
Stuck
Fruitless
Lost
There are lots of causes to these feelings but one pervasive and underdiagnosed problem causing these feelings in a Christian life is having a disordered life.
What Is a “Disordered Life”? (A Christian Perspective)
A disordered life is when one pursuit (good or bad) consumes your time and attention so that faith, relationships, work, and health are starved. The issue isn’t the object itself, but the imbalance. Re-ordering starts by setting boundaries, then replacing overuse with life-giving habits.
Example in Creation
A disordered lifestyle is much like the problem of English Ivy in the Willamette Valley. English Ivy is a beautiful plant that grows easily, prevents erosion, and cleans the air. Some say it has medicinal properties, others say it's toxic and will make you sick. It’s not an evil plant. Some people love it and some don’t, but the issue is that English Ivy is invasive in the Willamette Valley. Most people will start their English Ivy problem by using it to fill empty space but that Ivy, if not carefully controlled, takes over everything, choking out the plants around it. Just like a disordered lifestyle, that disordered thing in your life may not be evil, maybe it’s social media, maybe it’s TV, but little by little it may be destroying the forest of your life.
Just like the Ivy scales the massive trees and blocks the sunshine causing trees to perish from lack of sunshine, your metaphorical English Ivy might be blocking your perception of God in your life. The omnipresent God is not hiding from you just as the sun is not hiding from the sky but it might be difficult for you to find Him while choking under the weight of the things consuming every bit of your attention. You may find that things that used to be pillars in your life are beginning to die.
It’s not just the ancient evergreens in danger from invasive species. On the ground English Ivy takes all the space that might otherwise be used for new sprouting life. In the same way your obsessions may be choking out every chance for new and meaningful things in your life.
Spotting disorder in your life
A disordered life is a life that has been taken over by obsession with something that is taking energy or attention from everything else. It is not healthy to have just one thing consume your life. A disordered lifestyle can be made of anything, it's not about what that object is, instead it is about how much it consumes. Some people will find they are consumed by things with extreme and obvious side effects like alcohol or recreational drug use, but others will find that their consuming thing is something no one around them has a problem with like television, social media, books, movies, even work or study. So in short a disordered life is any life with an imbalance leaving too little time and mental energy for the many things that make a healthy life.
Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. (Revelation 3:2 NIV)
What do I do if my life is disordered?
It’s not too late to make a change. Removing Ivy isn’t fun, it’s hard work and the results aren’t immediately pretty. However, just like the forest is not designed to be desolate, neither is your life. When you make space for meaningful things, God is faithful to bring new life.
Let’s talk practical and say that your disordered thing may be social media, and new life is a new friendship. You might start by cutting time out of your scroll time and make plans on purpose to see that friend, and while you are there stay away from social media, find things to talk about that aren’t reels and memes. Create a space of life that doesn’t include any of your disordered thing.
A disordered life takes over everything and it’s overwhelming, don’t worry about cutting everything cold turkey. Begin by just stopping the spread of disordered things. Establish the boundaries you will not let your obsession/fixation cross into. Maybe those boundaries are family time, church or other hobbies.Take note of the activities or focuses in your life that take up too much time, attention and energy. Begin to place boundaries around these disordered habits. For example, if your vice is playing video games, set time restraints around when you CAN play video games, and free time that you fill with healthy habits to replace video game time. Exercise, maintain your friendships, join a bible study, etc. Intentionally make space so the metaphorical "Ivy" you begin to cut back is replaced by the things you want to grow in.
Steps to start (checklist)
Make it harder to access your disordered thing (delete accounts, throw away supplies, set a budget, etc)
Make plans that pull you away from the time you usually use for your disordered thing (volunteer, ask friends to go out, etc)
Find a partner to keep you accountable to your goal of building balance
Ask people you trust to pray for you
Challenge yourself to focus time of serving others
Join a program that causes a massive shift in your time use
Lots of people say that they will make a change when they have something else to do, but we easily fail to recognize that our disordered lifestyles are preventing new experiences, relationships, accomplishments and growth from ever taking root. If you are tired of seeing no fruit in your life, it might be time to start cutting out the things that don’t produce fruit. Don't know where to start or feel like you can’t get the motivation to do it alone? That’s alright! Join us this summer for 6 weeks of pursuing God, building community, and serving mankind as the hands and feet of Christ!