[learn_press_profile]
Every so often I see a coyote run in front of my house. There must be some that live in the woods down by the park and come up to see what is available to them along our street. I enjoy watching them because they have such a bounce in their step when they are on the move. They seem to be full of energy – maybe even joy – as they operate at a speed that is somewhere between a walk and a run. They don’t appear to be exerting a lot of energy, but they seem to be operating with intent.
One of the other things that I notice about coyotes is that they can change directions mid-step. They are bouncing along at a quick pace until they get startled or catch the smell of something to eat and then, boom, they change their mind and their travel direction just like that. I think that is one of the reasons they have a reputation for being a little shifty. In some of the indigenous storytelling I have been reading lately, the coyote is portrayed as a crafty creature that isn’t afraid to pull a few tricks on his fellow animals. Coyote is used in a comic, and at times tragic, sense to convey timeless truths.
I observe that crafty/shifty nature when I see them on my street. I remember one night I looked outside and there was a coyote in my neighbour’s driveway. He (I will call it a he for the purpose of this story, but I really have no idea) couldn’t make up his mind what he was wanted to do. Several times he took a few steps toward the house – or more accurately toward the car port – and then would just as quickly take a few steps in another direction. I could tell that he was fully aware that Dale fed cats in that carport which meant a possible dinner (either the cat food or the cat as food) for him. He also knew that going too close to a house was not wise because there were people around and people are a little higher on the food chain than him. The idea of food was making him press into the adventure while the fear of the unknown was keeping him from going too far into that adventure.
We do that sometimes, too, not for cat food, but for many other things. We cannot make up our minds exactly what we want to do. We are heading in one direction only to be distracted or scared off from that direction. We think about how great it would be if we could only “_____,” but then we realize that there is a danger of “________.” Start. Stop. Left. Right. Up. Down. Invest ourselves, pull ourselves away. We have to determine if the payoff is worth the risk or the potential cost.
I think people are doing that with church right now as we seek to “Regather the Church and Renew the Mission.” We take a few steps toward the church and then scamper back in another direction. We can’t make up our minds about whether or not we are fully engaged. There are a lot of unknowns that worry us, and we are out of the habit and routine of church life. We know we miss it, we want to invest in it, but there are noises coming from the world that tell us it might not be a good idea. Community! But, I am not ready to be back in a crowd. Learning! But, I can receive the same teaching by watching on line. Connecting to the holy! Well, I can pray by myself. A place to serve! But, I am already so tired and busy. Starts and stops. Benefits and fears.
What we have to determine is whether or not the church, whatever it is we love about the church, has enough to pull us back into the routine of church life. Can we invest fully in the community in this moment? The idea of being back together draws us, but maybe not enough to be as much a part of it as we were before. Let me just say that it is OK to be in between. We might be approaching it like the coyote in the driveway. Yes, I want to be back fully, but can I? Should I? Yes! No! Yes! No! These are decisions that have to be made! My coyote eventually chose to run away and never go to see if that food was there for him. We are told to never give up meeting together! That is important, but we are in an in between moment and the decisions of how much to reinvest are hard.
Yet I can see in these stories that I am reading that one of the things the crafty, comic character coyote never seems to learn is that it is not all about him. There is a community value to your being with us in church. You might not feel the need to be here and invested, but someone else does. I don’t mean that someone else feels the need to be at church – I assume they do – but someone else needs you to be at church with them. Your being present in community, mission and worship means a lot to other people. It is not just about our starts and stops.
So, let’s learn from coyote! Let’s make a choice. Let’s not be shifty, crafty, and self-focused. Let’s open ourselves to see what God is calling us to do and pursue that with dedication.
