Be the Torch

There really is a dif­fer­ence between know­ing and being. Know­ing is aca­d­e­mic; being is spir­i­tual. Prac­tic­ing med­i­cine and being the doc­tor are not quite the same. The dis­tance of the first lacks the soul of the sec­ond. A real doc­tor cares about you as a per­son. The same can be said about a min­is­ter or other pro­fes­sional. It is one thing to do the job, it is quite another to embody the calling.

It has been said a num­ber of other ways: “To have knowl­edge is to carry a torch; to have wis­dom is to be the torch.” “Do not merely study about the Bud­dha — BE the Bud­dha.” Or, a lit­tle closer to home, “Is your min­is­ter a Chris­t­ian?” Roles are not all that hard to play. Being the call­ing is the actual call­ing. The same is true for any Chris­t­ian. Peo­ple announce their denom­i­na­tional affil­i­a­tion with pride, but you won­der about their iden­tity with the One that called them.

Being is quite beyond doing but includes it. Tak­ing the last step from car­ry­ing the torch to being the torch means drop­ping the ego. To para­phrase Paul, “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.” Liv­ing out of the Christ cen­ter includes being engulfed by it and not just lec­tur­ing about it.

You can write a book or have books writ­ten about you. Doc­toral dis­ser­ta­tions can be writ­ten by you or about you. (In rare cases both can hap­pen.) I would pre­fer to be the sec­ond. I admire those that crank out the books, but I admire most the ones that are wor­thy of being the sub­ject. Jesus, St. Fran­cis of Assisi, Mother Teresa — embod­ied doers of spirit — Being who they were called to be!

I hope some­one stands over your grave and says, “Wow! Did some­one write that down? Quick, give me a pen, the world needs to remem­ber this one!” I hope the light from the torch you are con­tin­ues to glow through oth­ers forever.