Reference Point

I grew up in South­east­ern New Mex­ico. To the North­east, there was (and still is of course) a moun­tain that can be seen in all but the worst weather. It served me well as a con­stant ref­er­ence point. One glance at the moun­tain and I knew where I was, and which way I was head­ing. Through­out life, I have col­lected a list of other ref­er­ence points — most of them philosophic.

Like most, I often ask myself: What would Jesus do? That ques­tion comes up mostly in moral or eth­i­cal dilem­mas. I am sure I often do not live up to what his actions would have been, but he is the ref­er­ence point of choice. When it comes to the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of min­istry, I ask myself: What would Albert Schweitzer do? I love his style. He gave up a lucra­tive career as a the­olo­gian to run a small hos­pi­tal in Africa — far away from the din­ner par­ties of Europe.

The older I get, the more I replace celebri­ties with saints, as my moti­va­tional ref­er­ence points. Bible char­ac­ters have always been in my mind. I have had “Eli­jah caves” scat­tered through my adult life — times when I took sab­bat­i­cals or went under­ground to recover from a min­istry or life cir­cum­stance. The char­ac­ters of Jesus’ para­bles play around inside my head too. I def­i­nitely iden­tify with the Prodi­gal Son. Hav­ing grown up in and around deserts, the Exo­dus sto­ries are par­tic­u­larly real to me.

We need our men­tors. Even when we out­grow them, their faces dwell in the back of our minds as sym­bols of lessons learned. I have been blessed with some good ones. Oth­ers I have cho­sen have also been spurred by the Holy Spirit. Char­ac­ters real or fic­ti­tious fill the bill. “Rocky” (the imag­i­nary char­ac­ter and alter ego of Sylvester Stal­lone) has become a well known ref­er­ence point for the com­mon man. It is easy for us to iden­tify with some­one that has to endure, and all we hope to do is go the dis­tance (faith­ful unto death…).

Choose your ref­er­ence points well. It is a long and com­plex jour­ney. Do not fol­low blindly. Make sure your per­sonal ref­er­ence points are as grand as that moun­tain in the distance.