The Longest Trail Revisited

[HKHaugan]

The Longest Trail Revisited

 “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning (Lk.12:35)”

 In the last session we talked about being spiritual trailblazers.   We can take a plane and in one day be in Asia.  We can go by car and reach the West Coast in a comfortable five days.  We can ‘Duo’ on the computer and in a matter of seconds see and communicate with people around the globe.  Physical distance is no longer a barrier.   

 However, relational distance, the journey to the heart of another, is far more distant.  As people of the Light, it’s spiritually traveled in the world’s darkness and you don’t arrive according to a timed schedule. There are no maps, only the willingness and the faith to make the trip.  What you find is that attitudes, expectations, disappointments, disillusionments, first impressions, prejudices, worries, weaknesses, are all hills and valleys, walls and barriers that increase the longest journey any of us take, of that to another heart.  It is usually full of fear-filled tangents couched in anxiety.  Finally, and maybe the most challenging, it’s traveled alone.  The physical distance may be three feet but the spiritual distance between hearts is incalculable.

 Add to this the increasing way technology is used to keep the outside world outside.  People run around with earbuds listening to whatever.  Video games consume the present consciousness of millions.  We come home, shut the garage door, turn on the TV and are lost in the mindless fare presented.  Rather than deepening our relational experience technology becomes its retardant.  Hearts are increasingly further and further apart.  It has affected education to the degree that young people have to be taught in sound and scene ‘bytes.’  

 I know that many of us are involved in Facebook but there is a subtle reality we need to face there. There are no friends on Facebook.  Facebook is not a friend.  There may be electronic sharing but it’s not the same as personal presence.  It’s electronically impersonal even if it looks personal.  Sure, the intention is conveyed but the nuance of voice, tone, attitude, visible body movement, eye messages, touch and that inner person are absent.  When someone may say they care it only reflects how you read it and what you want to believe it means.  You are actually getting maybe 5% relational reality.   There is nothing to compare to a hug, to a comforting presence of another, to the inner person reflected in their eyes, voices and bodily demeanor. 

 There is one medium that comes close to being really personal.  That is the old-fashioned hand-written letter.  And now even that is being done away with since children are not being taught how to read or write script.  Hey, and I’m the worst at not doing that either.  What used to be a three-cent stamp for first class mail is now fifty cents and what happened to the penny-postcard?

 Spiritual darkness surrounds the relational heart.  Technology has intensified the darkness and the temptation it brings increases relational distance.  Add to that impact the instant arrival of every war, every conflict, every element of the basest part of human nature surging right into our living room on TV.  No individual can handle the pressure of processing it all.  That is why so many seek escape in any way they can from the prevailing culture.  It is not only our heart but the hearts of those who don’t have a Savior.  It is their hearts and ours Jesus came to free.  He alone knows the heart.  He alone has the keys to the heart and He alone can bring them out of this present darkness. “The people who are now living in darkness will see a great light. They are now living in a very dark land.  But a light will shine on them (Isaiah 9:1-2).”  Fulfilling that prophecy Jesus proclaimed, “I am the light of the world.”  He removes the distance by being the light in the darkness through our faith in Him and the sharing of that faith.

 People in one sense have become like their distant forbears, cave people.  Only now, they are trapped in the caverns of technology.  Jesus is the torch that lights the hearts of those caught in the caves into which they have fled.  Disciples of Jesus are the ones carrying that torch.  Jesus said about His disciples and therefore us, “You are the light of the world.”  The distance to the heart of another decreases when we share the Light we have been given.  Matthew 5:16,  “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”  

 Good works proceed from the faith of those who choose personal presence for their communication.  I know that‘s hard right now in the middle of a pandemic.  But we can use this time to ready ourselves when we are relatively free to move about.  We are in a kind of ‘advent’ time of preparation if you choose to make it that.

 I’m not saying ditch Facebook. No, no.  Sometimes it can be an entry to spark a point where someone in spiritual need responds.  It has a place, and a good place, as long as it is not a substitute for personal presence.  It is a great informational tool that you can use to make requests, plan meetings, share photos, keep up to date on events, share ideas and concepts.  But it can become a cave in which you can justify not being personally present.  Self-justification is a trap.  You can type a desire, but you can’t share your heart.

Let’s be honest. 

Our greatest moments are those when we have touched each other with our tears, our smiles, our pains and hurts, our humor, our understanding, our forgiveness, our compassion, sharing our feelings, praying together, a hug, a pat on the back, laughing at one another, our memorable quirks, absorbing the grief that someone needs to get off their chest, listening to one another at a time of need or just being together and not even having to say anything. And there’s so much more. So, use technology but don’t let it use you.

 Relational distance can only be traveled and overcome by personal presence.  Paul is a definitive example.  In his letter to the Roman Christians, after naming 27 believers he knew plus their house church members and others he met, he sends greetings through Tertius to whom he dictated his letter.  He gives personal greetings in all his letters.  In several he tells them to greet one another with a holy kiss.  As brusque as he sounded from time to time, Paul was a ‘hands on’ guy, personal, caring and loving.  Notice too that he sent a person to convey his messages beyond his letters.

 Of course, Jesus Himself tells us to love the Lord God with our full selves and our neighbors the same way; to love one another as He loves us.  His Last Supper with His disciples was an intimate interchange that He initiated to keep them personally and relationally involved.  Every experience He had from His miracles to His teachings were met with a relational challenge He resolved spiritually. 

 Perhaps this Advent can be a time we take charge of our relational calling.  Preparing for Christmas is relational in its intention to bring the deepest relationship we have into full view and invite others to join us.  The longest trail may only need one step.