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Be Here Now
 
There is a great cartoon in the April, 6, 2020, edition of The New Yorker that shows a man and woman hiking. The woman is leading the way. She has her backpack on, her sweater wrapped around her waist and walking poles in each hand as she makes her way up the trail. Her husband, quite a ways behind her, looks tired with his hand on his head. There is a beautiful lake behind both of them with a stunning sunset. The man calls out to his wife, “How much further away from it all will we be going?”

As an avid hiker myself, I have blown past many spectacular vistas just for the sake of continuing further on the trail. Hiking is not meant only for exercise, but also for the journey itself. Too many times, I’m solely focused on reaching the summit that I rarely see what’s around me on the way up.

In college, Megan and I participated in a two-week hiking trip in the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York. I personally think the school made us do it so that we would be grateful for the crummy dorms they put us in on campus, but it was a meaningful experience for both of us, and we still talk about it today. The main theme during those two weeks was, “Be here now.” No matter what else is going on in the world and in our lives, be here, in this place, now.

Advent calls us to be in this holy season now. Christmas is coming, but be present and don’t get ahead of yourself. This is too beautiful of a season with so many precious gifts to give us that we will miss if we hurry.
The Rev. Wesley Arning
Associate for Young Adult and Small Group Ministry
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