Faithfulness

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. The irony just hit me. I meant to blog about faithfulness yesterday and kept getting distracted by reading about other subjects.
Faithfulness...it's that stick-to-it-ness that carries us through even when we don't feel like doing something. It's loyalty, duty, and all those other ty's that we tend to ignore or pretend don't apply to us anymore.

Am I wrong? Perhaps it's just me, but I get uncomfortable when someone mentions the word "duty". I don't want to be locked in to a job or task or possibly a person long-term.

And yet, I appreciate those friends who have stuck with me all these years, proving themselves faithful, even when I fall short. Faithful, loyal...we often think of our dogs when we hear these words. Why? Because Max and Sam (my beautiful cocker spaniels) don't quit on me or abandon me just because I lost my temper or I had other obligations all day. They are always happy to see me and want to be at my side. They come back to me when I let them run. They don't forget me in pursuit of some new scent. They certainly don't follow anyone else. They are loyal to me.

And now comes the application or reality. Am I faithful? Have I been loyal to the one's in my life? How can I live faithfully? LOL-, well for one, I could have taken a few minutes yesterday to write this down and kept a consistent journal.

And now today, I will meditate on the character traits of faithfulness and goodness. My first inclination is that these two traits cannot be seperated. Is it possible to be good without being faithful? Is it possible to be faithful without being good? I don't mean "is it possible to DO good without faithfulness?" This the distinction- doing and being.

It is possible to DO something good without being faithful; a kind word to a stranger, a smile, perhaps a donation. Faithfulness implies relationship and an internal sense of integrity. I love that word; integrity. It conjures an image of a whole like a wheel or even a complex machine which could not function without ALL of its pieces. Every part is integral to the function of the whole.

Doing and being...It always come down to this. Function...that's the doing part. The whole...that's the being or existing. Maybe it's like art. I can appreciate art, perhaps a painting or sculpture or even performance art. It exists and I enjoy it for whatever it is.

Then there's "functional art" like bowls and vases and beautiful pieces of pottery which can serve not only as something lovely to behold but also can double as a tool or utensil. Some might argue that all art is functional in that it evokes feelings of joy or anger or calm or moves us to action and that, as such, it has served a purpose. I propose that we are all God's art, functional art. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's workmanship (his masterpiece or work of art), created in Christ Jesus to do good works. This was always God's intention for us even before he created the universe.

And now we come down to the age old argument: which is better- to be or to do? Jesus had this argument thrust upon him once when he was hanging out with some friends in Bethany. Mary was listening and conversing with Jesus and the disciples, hungry to know more about what Jesus was saying. Martha, her sister, was getting ticked off, starting to feel unappreciated because she was "doing all the work" while her sister just talked.

So Martha, who thinks that doing is better than being, tells Jesus: "Hey, make my lazy sister get up and help me. I'm working my fingers to the bone trying to get dinner and there she sits, chatting with you guys."

I love Jesus' response. He doesn't berate Martha for "doing", but he does notice that she seems to be worried about a lot of stuff and is feeling overwhelmed when in reality only one thing is needed. What is that one thing?

He said Mary knew what it was. "Mary has chosen the better thing," he said. She recognized that Jesus wouldn't be around forever and she embraced the moment. Martha wasn't wrong for making preparations or doing. She just lost sight of the fact that Jesus came to her house to hang out with her, to just be with his friends. I'm guessing Martha's love language is doing stuff for other people, while Mary's language of love is listening actively.

Ah, I have much more to write about this delicate balance, this tight rope I find myself on so often, between being and doing, but I need to mow the lawn for my brother and clean the house while they are out of town. Because we love not only in words but in deeds. And because I recognize that faith (or love) without actions is dead. Didn't John write, "Dear children, let us not love with words or language but with actions and in truth"?