I was in church this past Wednesday. Something I have done pretty regular for the last ten to twelve weeks. The church has quietly decided that in order to ?lead? an event at the church you need to be trained in basic discipleship. Not a bad idea. This is not about the merits of that decision.
At the training this week I listened as the session was read to us. This has been the normal mode of instruction since this training started. Not a lot of interactive teaching more lecture than participation. Again this is not about the training.
One of the folks in attendance asked by way of a greeting ?Why are you here?? That question got several hard stares and a comment from the instructor. The gal who asked the question was surprised because I was in class and not at my daughter?s high school graduation ceremony. A couple of things amazed me at that moment. One was that some gal who has no relationship with me or my daughter is intimately aware of her education progress, so much so she even provided a graduation card. Two was that my presence in class was questioned, as if my priorities were wrong for being in class instead of not at my daughter?s graduation.
Which brings me to the real reason for this little word dump. Priorities. I have been very fortunate to have had some really good teachings many by good teachers many by some really hard lessons learned. One of the teachings I received is titled ?Living for the line? Its primary focus is to encourage the establishment of priorities, of running the race well, and keeping focused on the finish line. So what is the finish line, why death of course, when we are dead we are finished here, but we are just starting there. Death is the start of the really long line called eternity. Finishing or starting depends on your point of view. There are many events that are called the teacher called ?dots? birth, HS graduation, collage, marriage, kids, careers all of these represent dots on the short time line to death.
My daughter and I have a similar view on the HS graduation thing. It is a requirement to progress through high school for life skills. But act of walking across the stage at the high school graduation itself is not a significant event in light of eternity. Releationshps established in high school can be and are significant, but walking across the stage, not so big. She graduated well, good grades, no dramatic or traumatic events, just a job well done.
Is she less of a person for not having ?walked the stage? for her diploma, I think not. It is likely that in 6 months only she and I will know she did not walk. Her dots in life are different. Her dots really are focused on the line and not on the lifetime of worldly dots.
So as I sit in ?discipleship? class I am thankful that I did not wait for this class to establish priorities and to focus on the line. I am thankful that the relationships I have been a part of are real. It is nice to acknowledge achievement, but when the acknowledgement comes from someone with no relationship it seems shallow.
Living for the line means establishing long term relationships that are deep and bring with them all the joys and sorrows of life. Shallow relationships make a dot all the more less important. My daughter completed high school well. The fact she did not walk out of choice is trivial to the point of non-existent. She did well, one dot done well, on to the next dot constantly heading toward the line, and building relationships, that is exceptional.
