John Gardner's books and essays on "Self-Renewal" have become classics and I for one hope they discover a whole new market among today's Millennials who are looking for meaning purpose and using their lives for something outside themselves.  Several times he cautions against becoming so good at something that we let other parts of ourselves atrophy and we "go to seed" because we have so focused on one area of our lives.  "Life is an endless unfolding and if we wish it to be an endless process of self-discovery an endless and unpredictable dialogue between our own potentialities and the life situations in which we find ourselves. By potentialities I mean not just intellectual gifts but the full range of one's capacities for learning sensing wondering understanding loving and aspiring."  Too often ” we find something we do well and become smaller people in time.

There is a good example of that in the Levites.  While on the surface it would seem unfair they were excluded from an inheritance of land in which the other tribes shared because "the Lord God is their inheritance"” it became the source of their greatest strength.  They enjoyed the benefit of having a whole nation of "benefactors" which enabled them to be free of special interests spending energy and resources on the defense of their boundaries and worrying about making a living.  Instead ” they became the first "culture makers" (to use Andy Crouch's fine phrase) in Israel.  They were not simply Temple functionaries but were involved in every aspect of the new nation. 

They were teachers” judges physicians poets authors creators of libraries artists architects builders musicians and financial managers.  They were the creative class and knowledge workers. Scattered throughout the whole nation instead of being concentrated in one locale ” they created a first-rate network of influence and relationships.

It's not how we think of them from the New Testament” is it?  We see them as dry colorless and lifeless lawyers who are only interested in picking Jesus apart.  That was not their original purpose.  They reduced themselves to that over time because in Gardner's words ” they stopped renewing themselves and went to seed.  They became so competent in one area of their lives that they lost their calling.

What was such an extraordinary inheritance in disguise was not enough for them.  They wanted more and” ironically became examples of a shrunken life far from what they once had been.