In April of 1981, as a junior in high school, I attended a Together Encountering Christ (TEC) retreat in central Minnesota. That three-day retreat and the subsequent retreats I have worked on have had a profound impact on my life. From developing a better understanding of how God’s love works in my life to cultivating relationships with the people I consider my closest friends, including my wife, I could not imagine, and would not want to imagine, how life would be had I not accepted a friend’s invitation to attend the retreat.
Unfortunately, if I were invited to attend the retreat for the first time today, I am not sure I would go.
Don’t get me wrong. I hope I would say yes.
The retreat is still a very valuable experience and continues to have a profound effect on the people who attend it today. Because of how busy life can get, though, committing three days to slowing down and exploring a deeper relationship with God and with others can be difficult to add to our calendars.
In addition, because technology allows such immediate and continual connectedness to most everything going on in the world, disconnecting from the outer world for several days to focus on our inner worlds could be challenging as well.
I believe the busyness and connectedness of our world is exactly why we should be committing the time to retreats and others activities which encourage us to reflect on our lives and our relationships with God and others. I think Jesus spoke to this in Luke 10: 38-42, in the story of Mary and Martha, when he affirmed Mary for sitting at his feet and listening to him speak while her sister Martha worked.
The mother of the friend who invited me to attend the retreat has a saying posted on her kitchen wall that I refer to often and is the inspiration for this blog. The poster says, “We are human BEings, not human DOings”.
Though I believe we are both, I fear we put way too much emphasis on assessing our lives by the DOing, neglecting the importance of the BEing.
Whether by attending retreats like TEC or just taking the time everyday to reflect on our lives and God’s presence in them, balancing our BEing with our DOing, as the pace of life continues to quicken, is more important now than ever.
beinghumandoinghuman 
Phil,
You’re awesome.
Thanks Joe. Been a long time. Good to hear from you.
You know, Phil, I first met you at a TEC sometime in the mid- to late-1990s and then I moved away all over the place until our family landed in Sartell almost 5 years ago. When we were looking for a house on the weekends, we also shopped churches and schools and you (yes you!) were one of the reasons I instantly recognized that St. Francis was going to be our new local home. The first Sunday when I attended Mass there, I saw you and your family sitting several rows ahead of us (and believe it or not, you looked remarkably just like you did way back when – except now with a beautiful family!). As I enjoyed the phenomenal music, I looked up and recognized Mark at the piano. Even though it had been so many years since first meeting you both in passing at a TEC, I knew this would be our new parish and that we would love it. How awesome that the great Lord has crossed our paths again through TEC!
Wow, Rebecca. Not quite sure how to respond, other than being a little humbled. Thanks for the kind words. It is amazing, though, the paths of others our lives cross and the impact the crossings have. I was actually going to write about that at first but instead thought this might be a better topic to begin with and in the future touch on how the people we meet along the way add to our lives. I must say, it is great being at St. Francis with you and your family. I am glad you chose SFX.