Presence Beyond Productivity

Hi, friends, and welcome to the Weekly Dulin Podcast, a brief weekly reflection from Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Here, we take time to think together about faith, community, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus in today's world.

Hello, Dulin Church. It's me, James Henry, your pastor, and it's good to be with you for our Dulin Weekly Moment and our Dulin Weekly Podcast, whichever way you are consuming these moments together. We are entering into summer. Last week, I talked a little bit about how vacationing is an opportunity to step back from the world, perhaps step away, get some relaxation, and that kind of thing. This week, I thought it might be a good thing to talk a little bit about presence versus productivity.

We live in a society that expects us to produce. I know I expect myself to produce. You probably expect me to produce. The things that you expect me to produce may be different than the kinds of things you would produce at work. But we have that kind of expectation from those with whom we work that they will produce things.

And we can produce things that can be measured. And I want to suggest to you that perhaps in addition to productivity, something to consider is how present we are in the world in which we find ourselves. If we can step back from seeing ourselves as producers, whatever it is you produce, perhaps you're a lawyer and you produce important billable hours, and you help your clients do a variety of things, I don't want to take away from that. Perhaps you're a teacher or a teacher's aide or any number of other things, and you help people learn new skills, new ways of being. Perhaps you're retired and you're appreciating life and engaging life in ways that you get to choose on an everyday basis.

I want to suggest to you that productivity is not what ultimately measures you, at least in God's eyes. And if you're measuring yourself by productivity, then one of the challenges you probably face is some kinds of negative feelings directed towards yourself when you don't produce as much as you imagined you could, imagined you would, imagined you should. Those leave us in a place where we struggle to see our value as people. If all we are measured by is what our output is, as opposed to just being. I have to tell you that early in the 20 when I first began a meditation practice, it was hard for me to take that practice seriously.

At the time here in the Virginia Annual Conference, then Bishop Yong Jin Cho challenged the conference to an hour of daily spiritual discipline. I suspect you heard something about that at the time, as did my congregation at the time. A challenge to an hour of spiritual disciplines every day. Well, for me, fifteen minutes seemed like a good amount of spiritual discipline. I sat down with my journal.

I wrote some quick things down. Sometimes I read the Bible. Usually I prayed. And I considered that fifteen plus minutes, plus the prayers I said with people when I spent time with them, all those kinds of things were a spiritual practice. When I first began to sit in meditation for twenty minutes at a time, it felt as though I was being unproductive.

And you know what? I was. I was simply being present in that moment. Wasn't producing anything at all. There was nothing anyone saw necessarily as a product of that time.

But fast forward a couple of years later, after I had done that thing that appears to be a waste of time, that meditation in the chair that I brought with me to this parsonage sitting over there, it may appear to be a time waste. It appears that I'm doing nothing at all. But what interesting thing happened for me after a couple of years of intentional meditation as well as more intentional journaling and other kinds of things. But the meditation itself helped me learn to let go of the things that take me out of my daily presence with whoever I'm with whomsoever I'm with. I don't know if you notice this, but you'll be sitting and then you'll suddenly have a thought that arises in your head about something you've got to do later on or something you need to remember or someone you need to call.

And in the midst of all the other things you might be doing, you lose track of the person you're with. And I would say you're no longer present there. I don't want to make a big deal of people who get together and spend time together and spend most of that time while looking at their magical screens, their iPhones or Androids or whatever version of phone you happen to have. But partially because I sometimes get caught doing that very thing. But I remember when iPhones first started appearing and people started spending time, Linda and I would be out for dinner sometimes.

And we'd look over at a couple who were both sitting at a restaurant table together, except they weren't looking at each other. They were looking down at their phones. They were not in now maybe they were secretly engaging in a text conversation because they didn't like to talk out loud about important things. I don't know. But what I think is that they simply weren't present there with the other person.

We're always looking for other opportunities, other places to be, other things for our schedule. And we miss out on being where we are, on being really present with the person who might need us who's in front of us. Just being present to a beautiful sunset. Sure you might sit near it, you might even notice that the sun is going down, but have you ever just sat with a sunset accompanied it as it went down? No particular plan, not reading a book, not looking at your phone, not doing anything else but catching a glimpse of those bright orange hues as they begin to deepen as they sink in the western sky.

That's presence. And when we're truly present to someone, we might discover, be surprised by what's really there, Something we never noticed about the other person. Something we didn't notice about the squirrels in our yard or the birds that are singing in the morning or the sun as it goes down. And suddenly it's as if you're there for the very first time. If your focus is going to be on producing, you won't sit and watch a sunset because there's nothing productive about watching a sunset.

You will go to the beach with the intent to get a tan or to swim, and be productive in that time. Even people I know who take, their work on vacation with them, It's complete opposite of what vacation is. I just want to invite you to consider with me and to consider especially for yourself what a gift you are and what you bring to every moment. And if you could bring your full self, if you could be fully present in this and every moment then you can really experience what's happening in your life. I'm not saying stop producing.

I think producing is a good thing. But if our life becomes production instead of presence, then we miss the moments that might matter the most in our lives. And I don't want you to do that. I don't think Jesus wants you to do that. If anything I learned from observing the stories about Jesus is he stopped to talk to people that his disciples ignored, that other people ignored, sometimes that other people thought were a waste of his time and yet he stopped there because in that moment being present with them was the most important thing Jesus could do.

And if that's the model Jesus set for us, what would it look like if the moments of our lives were filled with us showing up in that moment fully engaged, fully present, recognizing because of our own personal practice when our thoughts are distracting, when our feelings are distracting, recognize what's rising in us, we can let it go and really remain in that moment. Be fully present. Don't stop producing, but maybe take up practicing being where you are. Maybe there's a way for you to hold those tensions between production and presence in such a way that you can be in both places. Sometimes being productive and that being your focus.

Essentially when you are productive, oftentimes you are fully present to the work that you're doing, that which you're producing. If you're crocheting, you're fully present in the crocheting. If you are writing a legal brief, fully present in the legal brief. If you are writing a paper or journaling or having a conversation, being fully present there is the productive way to be. So practice presence and be productive as well.

But don't let yourself and your life be swallowed up by productivity and measured by productivity because you're more than what you produce, so much more. You are a gift, a true gift. It's been good to be with you. Thanks for letting me join you on this, for this Dulin Weekly Moment, this Dulin Weekly Podcast. If this has been helpful to you, I encourage you to share it with others and I wish you all the best.