Making A Difference

Today I walked in the woods for two hours.  As I walked, I thought of the common request in nature preserves: "Leave no trace."  We are asked to leave the place as we found it, with no evidence that we have passed that way.  No garbage, no graffiti, neither adding to the place nor taking from it.  Leave no trace, for creation is just as it is and it is fine.

Then I thought of the advice so often given to young people setting out: "Make your mark."  In this case, we are urged to give evidence of our passing.  Leaving no trace is treated as a failure.

What are we to make of this contrast?  At first I thought about the difference between "creation," God's amazing ongoing art project, and "the world," which Jesus and the tradition caution us about.  "The world" is a human product (perhaps with some help from the downstairs bunch), which blinds us to God and to creation.  In fact, "the world" is often the destroyer of creation.  So perhaps we are meant to leave no trace in creation, but this fallen world in which we find ourselves needs our help?

I don't think this is wrong, but there's more than that.  When we are urged to "make our mark" it isn't always a matter of improving the world.  Sometimes it's just the ego trying to reassure itself of immortality.  I may die, but people will know I was here!  And before I die, they will assure me that my life wasn't in vain, that I wasn't ordinary, that I won't be forgotten.  And so I work and strive and strain, not to make the world a better place but simply to make it bear my imprint.  In fact, those who seek to make their mark, rather than working for a better world, will either actively distort and destroy or they will limit their impact by following the call of popularity or fame or reward.

I could go from here to a whole meditation on death and our inevitable fading from view.  In the woods that's just where I went.  Maybe for Ash Wednesday I'll go there.  Maybe you'll go there now.  But I want to look for the creative place instead.

I co-lead a workshop called Making A Difference, for people who minister and serve others.  It aims at helping people clear away the clutter in their minds that stands between them and the life they are called to.  One of the things we do there is help them to see that they already are making a difference, but that may be invisible to them because they've set up criteria for what counts.  And likely they've confused making a difference with making their mark.

Often when we make a difference we can't plan it and we can't repeat it.  Something we say or do simply lands with someone else and opens up new possibility or heals old wounds.  It's not a technique or a project.  And often we don't even know we made a difference, unless someone tells us later.  We may think we have left no trace.  But speech and action always leave traces, intended or not.  The traces may not have our names on it, they may never return to gratify our ego, but they are real.

If you are trying to make your mark, let go.  I speak as an old mark-maker on the journey to leaving traces instead.  Listen for what is needed, what you can bring.  If that is nothing, as in the woods, leave no trace and give thanks for the abundance of creation.  If you have a contribution to make, make it.  But no marks.  No graffiti, no litter.  Just gratitude and joy and compassion.  We will notice the difference you make.  God be with you.

For more on the workshop, go to Making A Difference.