Date: 2004-07-23
To: Human Being, or Human Doing?
Miles today: 0.0

I spoke tonight at our weekly Friday night meeting at church. What else could I speak about--the Trail is still my favorite topic!Are you a human being, or a human doing?As many of you know, because I can¢t seem to stop talking about it, last summer I set out to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail¢that is, to walk from one end of the Trail to the other. Sounds simple, doesn¢t it? Hundreds of people do this every year¢some people year after year!The Appalachian Trail was built over 65 years ago. It begins in the state of Georgia in the southeast corner of the United States and follows the Appalachian Mountain range north through 14 states all the way up into the state of Maine in the northeast corner of the US. It is over 2100 miles long.Before I left on the Trail people would ask me incredulously, ¢You¢re going to walk how far? How long is it going to take you? Why do you want to do this?!¢ One reason I¢d list was that I wanted time to focus on my connection with God. I wanted to have some time to just ¢be¢, as I like to put it, to cultivate a slower pace of life after the hectic stress of school. But ¢being¢, I learned, is a state of mind, and it can be difficult to achieve in whatever circumstances you find yourself in¢in the city, yes, but even in the woods, even in ministry, even in Jesus¢ presence, as we¢ll see from a story in the Bible.I didn¢t achieve my original goal to complete the entire Trail¢I only managed to walk just over half of it¢but four months of walking in the woods proved to be quite educational.For one thing, and it¢s not original but, I learned that wherever you go, there you are¢with all your strengths and weaknesses, personality quirks, and your same old spiritual battles. You take it all with you. And the bigger deal you make out of your weaknesses or spiritual battles, the stronger hold they have on you.Another thing I learned is that success has a broader definition than simply achieving a goal.I learned the concept of inTER-dependence¢it¢s a balance; it¢s necessary to be independent and self-reliant, to a point, but there is value in allowing others to help you, in learning to be on the accepting end, and graciously¢and of course in helping others! Someone shared this quote with me as I planned my hike: If you have a dream you can do yourself, it¢s not a big enough dream.I also learned that you can get by with a lot less toilet paper.I learned many things, and in fact as I reflect on the whole experience I continue to learn from it. Tonight I want to share with you what I think was my most important lesson: And that is, that even out there in the woods where there are ¢no distractions¢, there are distractions. Since hiking was my work, I hiked only six days a week and took Sabbath to rest and refocus on God just like at home. Sometimes on Sabbath I ended up in a town with a little Adventist church, but several Sabbaths I landed alone, miles from civilization, stuck in a little three-sided shelter with just a roof and a sleeping platform¢and, kind of like it¢s been here in Norway this summer, most of the time it was raining.You ought to be able to refocus there, wouldn¢t you think?But throughout the summer I found ways to be distracted by different things. Like goals, for instance. ¢I have to hike 20 miles today,¢ I¢d tell myself, and then hike from 7:30 in the morning to 7:30 in the evening.By people¢spending time with the fellow hikers I met and made friends with, and sometimes adjusting my plans and schedule to stay with them. I don¢t regret this of course, because I developed several wonderful friendships that I¢m very grateful for.I definitely got distracted by the challenges: Besides being wet all the time, the smelly socks, bugs, and body odor, it¢s said that thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail is the equivalent elevation change of climbing from sea level to the top of Mt. Everest 16 times! It¢s no easy feat. Most days I lost count of how many mountains there had been. I couldn¢t think and hike uphill at the same time! With 30 to 35 pounds on my back, all my energy was directed towards getting up that mountain.Or sometimes it was my journaling: I kept a record of every day¢s miles, significant events, and thoughts, and sometimes I used the Sabbath to fill in the previous week¢s journal entries. A year ago today at probably about this time I was writing in my journal and snacking on trail mix while sitting on a rocky outcrop on top of Sinking Creek Mountain, looking out over the valley about 500 meters below me, just south of a little town named Catawba in the state of Virginia. I walked almost 20 kilometers that day and camped for the second night with a dentist from the state of New York.Sometimes reading became a distraction: Although my Bible was usually the only book I carried, it¢s not uncommon in the shelters to find that the hiker ahead of you had discarded a book, or half of a book (because it¢s less weight to carry them in pieces!).Now, none of these are bad things, per se; I was just so stuck in that busy ¢I-must-be-doing-something¢ mode that had been necessary to make it through school.That¢s one reason my time at Fredheim has been so nice. The atmosphere there is so laidback. I think I¢ve been stressed about¢once (and that was today!). It seems like I sleep in almost every day¢or at least it did before I started working in the kitchen! I¢ve only made a to-do list a handful of times, and there is almost never anything in the ¢urgent¢ quadrant!And still, after work I¢m busy with things like reading, my computer, people, eating, exercising, journaling, playing Solitaire on the computer, movies, scanning old photos from the family I¢ve met here in Norway, music, e-mailing, or even studying doctrines in the Bible or writing a sermon for the Friday night meeting! Sometimes it seems like, as I wrote once in my journal last July, I¢d do ¢anything to avoid coming face to face with my Creator.¢So I can identify with Martha in the story Luke tells in chapter 10, verses 38-42. Luke 10:38-42. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord¢s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don¢t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."In a psychology class at Southern we studied Dr. Kevin Leman¢s book about birth order and how it affects personality development. Now, of course there are variables in personality development that make it impossible to predict exactly how a person is going to turn out, but there are some characteristics very typical to each position in the family. At the time we were studying this it became fairly easy¢and fun!¢to try to guess the birth order of the people around me just based on their personality.So I¢ve concluded Martha was a firstborn! Luke says she opened her home, implying she was the one in charge of the household, and we find her here, like a typical firstborn, being the responsible, nurturing one, running around making sure everything was perfect. Although she was probably well-organized and didn¢t like asking for help, this was the first time she was entertaining Jesus¢the Lord! The Messiah!¢and the pressure to make sure that everything was ready was just too much and she went to find Mary.¢¦who was lounging at Jesus¢ feet. I think Mary must have been the youngest, and Lazarus the middle. Because except for the story of his death and resurrection in John 11, he¢s not mentioned as much as Mary or Martha. He¢s kind of overlooked¢which is typical of middle children!And last-borns? We like to be the center of attention. (I¢m the baby of my family!) We¢re used to being the ¢darling¢ of the family, so we grow up knowing how to charm, clown around, and be cute. So Mary. She gets lots of attention: there are several stories about Mary in the Gospels. As a lastborn, she might have lacked self-discipline. Maybe she had a hard time making decisions because there had always been someone older and wiser making them for her. Lastborns are the least likely to follow family traditions (that would be me!) and can be rebellious and break social rules. And Mary, as a youngest sister, was probably pretty feminine and flirtatious. Don¢t we understand that Mary was the adulterous woman thrown at Jesus feet to be stoned? Unchecked, these characteristics got her into trouble.John 12 records another dinner where Martha served, Lazarus reclined at the table, and Mary¢again at Jesus¢ feet¢took perfume and poured it on His feet. Luke 7 tells the same story, saying, a ¢woman who had lived a sinful life¢ came crying to Jesus, anointed His feet with perfume and tears, and wiped them with her hair. Sensing His host Simon¢s disdain, Jesus told him that he who has been forgiven little, loves little, while he who has been forgiven much, loves much. So maybe Martha, with her first-born perfectionist personality, didn¢t sense her need for forgiveness as much as her sister Mary did. After all, she¢d always done everything right so that she wouldn¢t disappoint her parents or other authority figures! So maybe her love for Jesus wasn¢t as deep as Mary¢s was.Several times when Mary is mentioned in the Gospels she is at the feet of Jesus. Not only can this position be a symbol of humility, it also implies an eagerness to learn. Did you catch what Mary was doing this time? Luke says she was at Jesus¢ feet, listening. She was listening to what He said. As a human being, she wasn¢t engaged in a monologue about what she wanted from Jesus, as I am prone to be when I pray; she just wanted to hear what Jesus had to say to her. Don¢t you wonder what it was that day? Cut to Martha, tasting the soup in the kitchen, directing the servants, arranging the place settings, organizing the seating. She was a good person; hospitable, she¢d opened her home to Jesus that day. The preparations she was making were for Jesus. But it appears that her focus was on the work she was doing, not on Jesus. Because notice that as busy as she was, she wasn¢t too busy to look over and judge her sister, to compare herself with her sister. Martha was so sure that it was right for her to be busily preparing dinner, and it would have been right for Mary to be helping her rather than sitting around lazily. But Jesus corrected her; He totally shifted her paradigm. That¢s why I can¢t judge you for not doing what I¢m doing, or not doing it the way I¢m doing it, because like Isaiah wrote in chapter 55, Jesus¢ thoughts are above my thoughts, His ways so different than my ways! What I think is right may not be.¢Tell Mary to help me!¢ Martha demanded. Having grown up with two older sisters, I like to joke that I have three mothers. Firstborns don¢t usually have a problem giving directions, do they¢not even to the Lord of the Universe! Martha knew from experience that bossing Mary around didn¢t get her anywhere anymore, so this time she appealed to Jesus instead. But listen to how gently Jesus corrects her, ¢Martha, Martha¢¦¢ He said. I wonder what the ¢many things¢ she was upset about included. The perfectionist¢s worrying syndrome? Maybe a little sibling rivalry? It¢s interesting, too, that even though Martha was wrong, she learned something by bringing her honest complaint to Jesus. Would she have learned as well or as quickly if she hadn¢t communicated with Jesus?Nevertheless, as a firstborn, even this gentle criticism from a friend could have been very difficult for her to take. ¢Only one thing is needed,¢ Jesus told her. All the many things Martha was worrying about would soon pass away, but her relationship with Jesus had eternal implications. For Jesus, it was more important to have some QT, as a roommate of mine used to say, some quality time, to just be together with His friends¢to just be. But do you ever find it awkward to just sit and talk with friends? Sometimes I do. In our go-go-go society, it¢s more comfortable to be on a walk together, to play a game together, to eat together, to be doing something else while I¢m talking on the phone (we call that ¢multi-tasking¢ in the US), to be doing anything together, than it is to just sit and be. Maybe Martha was like this too; she was a human doing¢more at ease working for Jesus than sitting down and just being with Him.Also, because I so easily fall into the habit of placing my own selfish desires ahead of His will, at times it can be uncomfortable for me to be so exposed to God. That was another distraction for me last summer¢my own wretched sinfulness. But if this is Mary Magdalene we¢re talking about, the prostitute whose demons were cast out seven times, and she was just sitting at Jesus¢ feet, enough said! What a wonderful picture of God¢s immense, unconditional, accepting grace¢and the peace we find when we accept it. As I studied this passage to prepare for tonight I recalled the times I have said to God loudly and frankly, ¢Here I am, God, and this is how I¢m feeling!¢ even when I knew it wasn¢t what He¢d feel; but there is a peace in that. It¢s liberating. This became my favorite lesson: Regardless of our shortcomings, spiritual battles we¢ve fought and lost, bad choices we¢ve made, we are still welcome to sit at Jesus feet and commune with Him. Isn¢t that awesome? Mary grasped this concept much better than I do!It¢s funny, isn¢t it, how human nature hasn¢t changed all that much over the last 2000, 6000 years! Our societies may be different, but people seem to have had the same struggles then that we have now. What about you? Whatever we¢re doing, in school, retired, or even working in a ministry like this one dedicated to serving God and shining His light in Skotselv, Kongsberg, Norway, and the world, we can become so consumed by what we¢re doing that we miss the communion with Who we¢re doing it for. I like what Ellen White wrote in the book Ministry of Healing, ¢We must individually hear Him speaking to the heart. When every other voice is hushed, and in quietness we wait before Him, the silence of the soul makes more distinct the voice of God.¢ That¢s difficult to do, isn¢t it? What distractions keep you from sitting down and listening at Jesus¢ feet?Are you a Human Being or a Human Doing?Like Mary, David recognized that ¢one thing¢ that is needed. He knew what to prioritize his life around. He said in Psalm 27:4, ¢One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.¢May we, too, learn to listen at Jesus¢ feet, to be human beings, not humans doing. May we learn to be still and know. Then a friend played and sang this song at the end:Be Still and KnowSteven Curtis ChapmanBe still and know that He is GodBe still and know that He is holyBe still, oh restless soul of mineBow before the Prince of peaceLet the noise and clamor ceaseBe still and know that He is GodBe still and know that He is faithfulConsider all that He has doneStand in awe and be amazedAnd know that He will never changeBe stillBe still and know that He is GodBe still and know that He is GodBe still and know that He is GodBe still¢Peace, be stillBe still and know that He is GodBe still and know He is our FatherCome rest your head upon His breastListen to the rhythm of His unfailing heart of loveBeating for His little onesCalling each of us to comeBe stillBe still