Terry Hershey tells a story in his book Sacred Necessities: Gifts for living with Passion, Purpose, and Grace about a visit with his family to Joshua Tree National Park in California. He writes:
While driving, we saw a coyote standing by the side of the road. Literally, just standing. We stopped the car. I’ve seen many coyotes. But always from a distance. Always skittish, running away from any scent of humans. This one was young. And was, apparently, victim of the National Park syndrome: people throw food to animals, animals begin to rely on food handouts, animals grow accustomed to humans and grow less afraid. I was sad, watching as the pup came to our car door. Wanting to chase him away, and to scold him, “Please don’t do this. Please. When you do this, you are not a coyote anymore.” He stood still, his eyes waiting? Pleading? Resigned?
And then he adds these words:"Perhaps he reminded me of someone I knew, the younger Terry, ever so eager for adulation and handouts, willing to give up his identity for them.”
These are haunting words. They remind us that it is easy to get sucked into the games the world plays about what is important and what we really should want out of life. The world around us really does want us to think that status, success, adulation, possessions, climbing the ladder of “success”, becoming popular and expanding our circle of “friends” will help us to discover and become the person who lives integrally with his/her real being.
But Gandhi was right, “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” Most of all, Jesus was right when he said that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions” (Luke 12:15). And we could add: a meaningful life is not based on our accomplishments, notoriety, popularity, number of degrees, etc.etc.
At this time of year there is a lot to celebrate for those who are graduating from high school and university. They have reached a major mile stone and transition point in their lives. They have accomplished something significant and they should celebrate the accomplishment. But I am afraid that for so many of these graduates they see these accomplishments not for what they mean to their personhood so much as benchmarks on the road to “success.” Instead of enjoying and living the journey they are focused on an allusive goal out there somewhere in the distance that somehow will define them and give substance and meaning to their lives.
If the Christian understanding of life is correct; if Jesus’ interpretation of the will of God is correct, we find our identity and the ultimate meaning of our lives in our relationship with God – we are children of God and persons of dignity and worth. The focus of life is the kingdom of God – the will of God done in all areas of life (Matthew 6:10,33). This identity is not dependent on what we achieve, who we know or what we have. It is not dependent on what schools we go to, degrees we possess, the number of books we write, the number of positions we hold or have held, but on who we are in and with God.
This doesn’t mean that we do not have goals in life. Goals that are in keeping with kingdom values can help us to live faithfully in line with our identity as persons created in the image of God. But to understand the message of Jesus is to realize that what really matters in life is not “something out there” somewhere or something based on what I accomplish, but that what really matters is being faithful to who I was created to be and redeemed to be in Christ. To believe that somehow my worth and dignity, my happiness and contentment, the meaning and significance of my life are based on what I accomplish (even for God) is to lose our identity and to set ourselves up for disappointment. Like the coyotes who have come to depend on the scraps doled out to them rather than living in keeping with their nature, we have lost something of what it means to Be.
Perhaps in Hershey’s story about the coyote there is also the painful reminder that often times we prefer the things the world doles out to us because we don’t want to do the hard work of living in relationship with God and being who we are intended to be. After all, it seems so much easier and a lot less challenging to accept what the world offers and affirms rather than to live a life that God offers and affirms. Let’s admit it -- the life of the kingdom of God is really out of step with much of what goes on in this world and what the world sees as important and crucial.
But it isn’t too late for us. It is not easy to listen to the voice of God over the siren call of the world, but it can be done. And if it is, then not only do we experience the challenge and satisfaction of a life well lived, we also find that much of what the world holds up for us to pursue and possess are really empty promises.
