Just Show Up

A year or two ago I watched the movie "Hardball" with Keanu Reeves. In the movie he plays the part of a gambling addict who gets into trouble with his bookies and needs to pay several thousand dollars in gambling losses quickly. He turns to an old friend who has done well in the business world and his friend offers to pay him $500 per week in exchange for him coaching a youth baseball team in the projects of Chicago. Keanu's character doesn't like the idea of coaching ghetto kids, but neither does his friend, whose company wants him to give back to the community when he would rather be off living the good life. Because Keanu is desperate, he takes the job. An improbable first step towards responsible living.

As the movie progresses it goes through a number of expected twists and turns, but the theme can be stated from one scene. Keanu wants out of the deal and doesn't show up one day. His friend gets called on the carpet for the "no show" and chews Keanu out, telling him he needs to show up or he won't get paid. At the end of the scene he says something fairly simple to Keanu: "90% of life is just showing up." As the film continues you see the truth behind the statement play out. Especially as Keanu deals with kids who haven't had an adult who would simply be there for them.

"90% of life is just showing up" is not an exciting, inspiring kind of pep-talk. But it's true. In fact, I would guess that it's a maxim for living life. This came home to me recently when I was taking an avalanche class for ski patrol. After fitting six hours of class time into my schedule, the field portion was to happen on a day that, from my perspective, was not beneficial. I had a number of things demanding my mental energy and the thought of making a special trip three hours one way for another six hours of work in the snow just did not appeal to me. But if I did not finish up now I would need to go through it again next year. As I weighed my options and their likely impact, I thought of how often I had to implore my children when they were young to "just do it, you'll be glad you did". And as I thought of that I knew I needed to take my own advice. I needed to "just show up". Naturally the day went well, I learned several things that made the written exam easier, and I had some fun (imagine that). Simply because I showed up.

In a small group I'm a part of we are taking a brief look at spiritual disciplines and a question has been put forth, "what discipline(s) are you currently practicing?" Of course the usual ones are stated as examples, such as prayer, study, fasting, solitude and so forth. But as I thought about it I realized that for the past several weeks the discipline I've been working on might be called the "just-show-up discipline".

Let me explain. I have dealt with a variety of extended family problems lately and my relational energy has not been exactly zippy, shall we say? So there have been mornings when I sit with the Lord and, in all honesty say, "Lord, I don't have much to offer other than to just show up." I'm not dodging our time, wanting to keep it short or trying to hide from him. I simply feel drained. And so I sit and offer that to him. Because that is what I have to offer. As little as it is.

Yet during those times I've sensed the Lord's reassurance that it's enough. That he will meet me where I am. And he has. It's not that I come away with great and inspiring insights into the scripture. Or have one of those amazing times of worship. But even so, there's a sense that I'm connecting with the Lord in a very real manner. A connection that lets me know he has me. That he will sustain me. That somehow, by just showing up, his Spirit is slowly shaping the image of Christ in me.

How could that be? One of the character traits that reflects Jesus Christ is faithfulness. According to Miriam-Webster.com faithfulness has a number of synonyms: loyal, constant, staunch, steadfast and resolute being five that it notes. With these synonyms there's a sense of hanging in there, or "stick-to-it-tive-ness" as my high school coach used to say. In other words, a great deal of faithfulness develops by just showing up.

Personally I would prefer something more exciting. Something that would cause others to say "cool!" But faithfulness is foundation work, which means digging through the dirt and the rocks, sometimes in a tedious manner, in order to have something solid for my life to rest on. When it is all done, hopefully, the Lord will say to me, "Well done, good and faithful servant". Which means he will have noted that in my life, I showed up.