From the Archives: Winter 2008

Written by Tim Smith

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and love kindness and mercy and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?” (AM Bible) Micah 6:8

It sounds so simple and it is exactly how I want to live. I’m forty-eight years old and taking stock of my life. As a Lutheran pastor, I want to lead my congregation to a simplicity of faith. I want to inspire them to love God and their neighbors. I want to lead them away from the business and circumstances that distract and keep us from doing the things we’re commanded to do in the scriptures. But how do we eliminate the necessary, functional, time-consuming problems of ordinary daily life?

For example, take the problem of church parking. The state is widening King Street that runs in front of our facility. This will eliminate much of our parking. Therefore, I have been obliged to spend my time looking for property and securing a two million dollar loan to purchase this property because we must meet city codes and provide adequate parking. Yet, just a few blocks down the street, The Hospitality House, our homeless shelter, has outgrown their building and are desperately trying to raise funds to secure a new place. God has commanded the church to take care of the poor and to feed the hungry. He hasn’t said a word about parking spaces yet without them we would have to close our doors. Somewhere, somehow, we have to find a way to take care of both situations, but how?

This past summer my whole family took a three month trip to Tanzania. Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, gave the clergy one hundred grants for sabbaticals. In all, they gave us $44,000 for our expenses and even provided a salary for a temporary pastor to assume my duties while we were away.

In Tanzania, I received a real “wake-up” call. We live in a charmed community here in Boone, surrounded by mountain beauty and great people. In Tanzania, they are surrounded with famine, HIV, and malaria. Death is a matter of fact. Here in Boone, we are concerned with our economic crises, like the falling stock market and 401K’s. In Tanzania, the average daily wage is $1.25 a day, approximately $450 per year. Mother Teresa said, “You will never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus until Jesus is all you have.” Tanzanian Christians know this for a fact.

Unconsciously, Boone Christians are spending their time on false gods. We worship at the altar of entertainment and amusement. The amount of time we spend on these “gods” is staggering. In Tanzania, they worship the Lord by spending an hour and a half singing gathering songs-their call to worship. Watching their unashamed worship of God for three or three and a half hours with their entire being astounded us. In Boone, Christians begin looking at their watches after an hour or hour and a half. After worshipping God, Tanzanians share their food and their heart as they ate together.

In their villages, they practice radical hospitality. They see unexpected guests as an incredible blessing from God and offer the best they can provide. As our family approached a Massai hut in the wilderness, I wanted to cry out, “Don’t kill the goat!” but I was too late. We ate one of their two goats. I choked down fried goat liver offered as a special delicacy to an honored guest.

Returning from Tanzania I realize I’m too busy with things and circumstances that distract me. Something is churning in me and right now and I’m not sure where it’s going. I’m calling my congregation away from self-centeredness and selfishness, of being centered on yourself.

In this world, there are two great truths. One, there is a God and two, you’re not it. God commands obedience, not emotions. He says where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Heart follows treasure, not the other way around. We must escape the distraction because God’s purposes require time. Twenty years ago I heard a Catholic priest say this, “Hush, get one thing straight! No one is busier than they choose to be.”

Each of us must choose between the temporal versus the eternal and the merely important versus the essential.

Tim Smith