Being Before Doing

If we want to be about God's work in our short human lives, then one of the best pieces of advice we can follow is to intentionally alternate between being and doing. This week's blog post is an invitation to view this next month of Advent as a season to make 'being' a higher priority than 'doing.'

This wisdom of alternation between being and doing has been said in many different ways. Years ago, I took a week long seminar on Christian leadership and was taught the action/reflection model. This model is based on the simple formula of 'action plus reflection equals learning.'

When I lived on the east coast, I was closely associated with a monastic community, the Society of St. John the Evangelist. They understood themselves to be men of 'contemplation and action.' In historical terms, they were sometimes called 'Trappists at home and Jesuits on the road.' (Trappists are a monastic community famous for their silence and stability, and Jesuits are famous for their strong and decisive action on behalf of the Gospel.)

Most recently, I have been deeply formed by the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington D.C.. This church is a community of highly devoted lay people that has had a profound impact through its loving and sacrificial service of the poor. Although they have never been larger than two hundred people, they have created, managed and staffed tens of millions of dollars of Outreach programs every year for decades. They work hard to serve those whom Jesus especially loves.

Yet one of their watchwords is 'being before doing.' Another is 'Inward Journey and Outward Journey.' What they have discovered is that they cannot be about the work of God unless they, first, are still. Before we act, we listen, and listening well takes time. Being before doing.

There are many reasons to be still and the season of Advent teaches us about one of them. In my weekly email newsletter, I wrote that Advent is a 'season of O.' That simple vowel is a primal expression of our hunger for God. We sing O Come, O Come Emmanuel!

We all tend to feed our hunger for God with other things that do not satisfy. I believe that many of our classic addictions- alcohol, sex, food and so on- are simply our futile attempt to feed our hunger for God with something else.

One of our addictions is being busy. Our culture, of course, ramps up the busy-ness every December. My hope and vision is that we can turn to St. Paul's, a sacred space for our busy lives, and experience a better way.

The universal church, in this Christian season of Advent, gives each of us an invitation to be still and get back in touch with our hunger for God. The church teaches us to be still and trust that hunger, that primitive 'O', that is perhaps the most articulate sound we can make. We know, perhaps, that without God we cannot please God and we don't get to control God. The church's invitation is to be still, listen to our hunger for God, and wait, trusting that soon we will be fed.