A huge theme that comes around over and over again for every YAGM is to just “be” and don’t worry about “doing” all the time. They tell us, “we are human beings, not human doings”. This has always been something I have struggled with because my entire life I have identified with what I do, i.e. “I am Elise, the athletic trainer, the master’s student, the YAGM…” you see where I’m going here… Throughout this process my most familiar titles have been stripped away from me, that of ATC and student and have left me as just Elise. Now, as humans we love titles, so I have gained some new ones like Elise: the American, Elise: our guest, Elise: fellow YAGM and so on. But, I can honestly say that I have never felt more uncomfortable answering the question “so, what do you do??” before in my life. My usual answer (at least for the previous two years of my life) was “I’m the athletic trainer for the GSU softball team, and I’m also getting my masters” I was proud of that answer, I had stories to go along with it, and usually got some impressed reactions, but now…. Here, in South Africa, as a YAGM I dread the question of “what do you do??” because now my answer is “good question, how much time do you have?” it’s not to say that I am doing all that much, but I’m doing a lot of being in different projects and that can amount to quite a long answer. My short answer is “well I have three main projects… (insert three projects)” people usually respond with “wow, cool!” but all I can think is “you have no idea that those three projects are nothing compared to the other things I experience here just riding on a taxi getting to them” but you can’t really answer the “what do you do?” question with “I ride a lot of taxi’s and have a lot of conversations with two year old Zulu children!” So, I have really begun to understand this concept of just being a person, being who you are in this new place, and just being with the people around you, versus this “go all the time… you are your job” doing mentality that is so up front in most of our minds. Saying that, I think that it is important to be both a “be-er” and a “do-er” because if you are only being all the time then that can just lead to unproductive behavior, but if all you do is do then you get more caught up in the identify that your job gives you and not the identity of who you are. For me, being Elise is hugely linked to being an athletic trainer, but it’s not all of me, I’m also just Elise, a girl who loves her family and friends, who likes to paint, who’s terrified a sharks, who’s idea of an awesome Saturday morning is a long run followed by an omelet, an introverted extrovert, and a northern southerner. I am a lot of things and despite the letters after my name, I have come to realize that the most important thing at the top of my resume isn’t the letters after my name but the name itself, because ATC only means one thing, but Ila Elise Anderson… means so many different things, and that comes from just being me, and not doing any one thing.
One of those “titles” that can come with me is Christian, Lutheran if you want to get really specific, or even a step further, an ELCA Lutheran. Isn’t it funny how every Lutheran, almost without fail when they meet another Lutheran will say “wow you’re Lutheran?? Me too! That’s so gr… wait ELCA, or Missouri Senate?” haha I’m telling, without fail… every time, and to all my Missouri Senate friends, this is not meant to be offensive, I’m sure you guys do it too! J But anyway! I’m off my point… Elise “the Christian” was sitting in church this evening and was hit by a thought, and it was “as a Christian… should we be “be-ers” or “do-ers”??”
This thought was brought about because this service I was attending was at this big non-denominational church here in PMB. I was invited to go by a woman I work with at the hospital because she thought I might enjoy an English church service. This is the type of service I usually avoid, the pastor in an untucked t-shirt, his image portrayed on the big screen, and instead of hymns you get a band in skinny jeans jamming out on guitars and drums, singing what sounds like the latest hit from Fall Out Boy but then you realize the subject of the song’s affection is Jesus and not a girl… but after attending the service for the first time last week, I realized there is something to this new form of worship. I mean who was I to judge how anyone chose to express their faith? As long as you aren’t hurting anyone, go ahead and jam on your guitars and drums! But anyway! So I was sitting there tonight, listening to the sermon and I started to think that all these people are expressing such strong feelings of faith and talking about being good Christians, and that God/ Jesus love us even with all our imperfections just because we accept their love and give that love in return. But the only message about love was that of the exchange between God and us (as individuals). Never (at least at tonight’s service, I’m sure this is discussed on other days) was the love between each other talked about. And this made me think; everyone here is being a good Christian here in this space, but what about when they walk out of those doors into the real world? A real world where not everyone agrees with you, where you see injustices, where people make you mad and you have to respond…. What then? That is when it hit me… as people it can be much more important to be rather than do, but as Christians, I believe, that to be Christians we must do things to express our Christian values. We can’t just be Christians on Sunday while we’re around our fellow Christian friends; we have to be Christians every day. And as Christians we have to do Christian acts. I’m not talking about giving “x” amount of your paycheck to a local charity in order to say “I’m a Christian!” (even though, donations are wonderful) But it’s the small things that we do every day that can reflect the values of our faith. The most important request that Jesus had of us was, “love each other as I have loved you.” How simple and complicated of a request is that? But, if you think about what Jesus sacrificed and did and compare it to what he wanted us to do in return, which is to love each other, it really is a small gesture on our part. Now, obviously, God didn’t intend for us to be these big love machines to just walk around handing out flowers and telling everyone we love them even when they are wronging us. If he did he wouldn’t have given us emotions like anger and frustration and sadness. But, what I think was asked of us is to love as best you can. Do the little things to express your love for people, and not just people you know, but all people. Help the elderly lady load her groceries in her car, send a card to a friend you haven’t talked to in a while, volunteer at a soup kitchen every once in a while, help your mom do the dishes after dinner… these are all small things that can add up to a lot. All of these things require taking action, require you to be a “do-er”… God did not intend for us as Christians to just “be” if he did he wouldn’t have sent Jesus down to us to inspire us to follow something, and aspire to be good. In fact, the slogan of ELCA Global Missions is “God’s Work, Our Hands” that screams “be a do-er!” we are sent out into the world to DO as Christians, to DO work while in the process slowing down enough to just be and appreciate the wonders we encounter, in both people and places… it can be a tricky road to tread, finding that line between doing and being.
This train of thought takes me back to our orientation in PMB, we were sitting in a circle in the little chapel at Lutheran Theology Institute and our coordinator Brian was joking about how he wanted to put a sign above the door the read “service entrance”, that people would read as they left church. It would be there to remind people that the real work begins when we leave the church. Church is a place to recharge your energy, to just be a Christian and focus on you and your relationship with God and your fellow Christians, but once you walk out those doors you better become a “do-er” because that’s our job, to DO good and to BE ourselves. And this doesn’t just apply to Christians, not at all. One of the things that bothers me after someone does something good is they say “well, it was the Christian thing to do” to me that implies that you have to be Christian to do good, which just isn’t true, what people should say is “well, it was the right thing to do”. In this reflection I spoke in the direction of Christianity because it is where I stand now. But, no matter what your label is, this can apply to you, because all of us can relate to the idea of loving our neighbor, and we should all strive to do that in all that we do.
So, I leave you with a challenge… to find the line between “being” and “doing”, because to be the best version of ourselves we must accept all that comes with each of us and not limit ourselves by what we do, but as they say actions speak louder than words. So, the question is: what do you want your actions to say about you?
