A recent posting on the Sojourners website
(SoJoMail@sojo.net), by Cathleen Falsani was titled ‘Doing Nothing for Lent.’ She recounted her experience listening to Eugene Peterson talk about his decision as a parish pastor to ‘do nothing’ - to just ‘be’ a pastor and not have to prove anything to anyone- but especially God and himself And I got to thinking……………
To do nothing - to just be… I guess it depends on how you define ‘doing. Taken to an extreme, this would seem to be an impossibility. Even at rest our bodies are still doing what bodies do - heart pumps, lungs contract and expand, blood flows through our veins, the stomach is noisily processing breakfast, the neurons in the brain are snapping… well most of them anyway. Thoughts are crashing through the brain at an endless pace… some we can pull out of line and think about - the rest go on their merry way without us. And if for some reason something hurts - our attention is focused there - pain always gets our attention.
So ‘doing nothing?’ not hardly. However, maybe Falsani & Peterson really have given me something top think about.
This ‘retirement’ thing for instance…. Re-tire- ment - as in retreading tires (yeah - like for trucks). Here is what Wikipedia has to say about re-treads:
A retread, also sometimes known as a "recap," or a "remould" is a previously worn tire which has gone through a remanufacturing process designed to extend its useful service life. Retreading starts with a safety inspection of the tire. The old tread is then buffed away, and a new rubber tread is applied to the bare "casing" using specialized machinery.
Retreads are significantly cheaper than new tires…”
Sounds like retirement to me. Re-moulding for further service, a way to extend the useful; life of a tire - or in this case a person. When I first entered ministry a friend commented that she was really impressed with the way I continue to recreate, reinvent, myself. ( and she meant this is the most positive way) Continually looking for new ways to grow, to serve, to be. (I kinda feel sorry for people who have been in the same job for their entire lives - same old same old…)
So I think that is where I am now - a remanufacturing process ( a.k.a. discernment) with the idea that something new will emerge - ok, so think caterpillar to butterfly, or do you prefer Phoenix rising from the ashes? Whatever - chose your metaphor..
I think my point is that even in our ‘not doing’ something is still happening. Maybe we have made a conscience decision to not do a particular thing - to not be busy for the sake of busy - but that does not mean we are in a state of non-existence. God is still working in us - behind the scenes if you will, our bodies are still doing what bodies do - like keeping itself alive - maintaining what scientist call homeostasis - if our bodies are out of whack we cannot even then do this thing we call ‘not doing.’
And so even this state of just being is a doing, albeit not what contemporary society would call productive work.
But God, (I don’t think I’m putting words in God’s mouth) doesn’t require our constant doing for the sake of busy. God is content, I think, that we just are - and so that is my challenge - and yours I suspect - for this season of Lent. The season that is a significant transition point in the cycle of the church. This season that is a full stop and rest in the melody of our lives. Let our bodies do what they do, let God do what God does in each of us and for all outward appearances, we can just not do and just be…
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