"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life, and not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived."
Henry David Thoreau.
Nineteenth century essayist and poet.
Best known for Walden.
Transcendentalism.
That’s it. He hit it on the head.
I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. Consciously and intentionally. I think one of the principal reasons I came on the World Race is for that very opportunity. This environment creates a space to live in such a way. Life on the race is not a perfect land free of distractions by any stretch of the imagination. There are still ways to waste time, or fritter away the days. You can check out emotionally and not engage with your teammates, squad-mates, or ministry contacts. There is however something special about the Race. While you have the freedom and ability to check out and take yourself away from the things that occur, I honestly think it’s hard to do. Those around you will hold you accountable to more and will push you into greater depths in your life.
I wanted to live in such a way that everything else was minimized. I am not naïve enough to believe that I could eliminate the distractions, but I believe the Race has helped me ignore them better than I would have at home. Thus far, I don’t really have the chance to spend too much time watching movies or television. I have limited internet. I do not have time to read books for fun (which disappoints me, but I’ve found is not the end of the world). I simply don’t have the option of being distracted by a lot of things that would keep me bound in the states. I have no phone, I don’t text or wait for people to call. I’m simply living simply.
I live in community where I have no chance to get away. I cannot simply leave these women. I haven’t been able to for the past two ½ months, for better and for worse. It has forced me to live intentionally. Each movement, each word, is being refined so that I will live deliberately. There’s no place for rashness here.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. “To the marrow” means to one’s innermost being. It’s the core of who you are. I want to experience life to the fullest degree possible. I’ve come to see that I could live a million lifetimes and still not experience everything that this Earth has to offer. I still wouldn’t be able to master all languages, or see all of the sights or understand all the cultures. The world is unfathomable. Vast are the people groups and individual’s stories. In these 11 months, I know that I will be overwhelmed. I already have been. The sheer quantity of places I’ll go and the people I’ll meet is mind-blowing. As I walk the streets of Kathmandu, Bucharest or Bangkok, my mind whirrs constantly. I often find myself wishing that my eyes were cameras. If only they took video! I am overcome by emotion as I think all about all there is in this world and how badly I desire to get to the core of it all. I’m not going to waste a single moment of it; it’s far too precious.
To put to rout all that was not life. I want to truly live. It sounds cliché, and I realize that it’s the title of a Switchfoot song, but we are meant to live. We are meant to live for more than success or achievements. We are meant to live for more than paychecks and vacations. We are meant to live for more than to simply eat, breathe, sleep, repeat. I want to put to rout (defeat utterly) all that is death and not life. We speak life, not death. We defeat lies in Jesus’ name. We vanquish the enemy. Death has no hold over us because of the resurrection. We shall put death to shame.
Not when I had come to die discover that I had not lived. I refuse to come to the end of my life and regret not living. I want to fly. I want to experience all that the Lord has for me and know that I did everything he asked of me. I want to someday be at the end of my life and know that I had truly lived. If I died tomorrow, I can honestly say today that I have lived a pretty full life, for a twenty-two year old. I’m not going to hold back, but be bold and courageous. I want to be in love with my savior, having my faith firmly planted in his Word.
Transcendentalism? It holds that divinity pervades all nature and humanity. The more I look at it, the more I see it; I see the Lord in everything. Thoreau was a pretty smart guy, if you ask me. I’m all for living in such a manner.
Let’s suck some marrow, shall we?
