Suit up & Show up

When I took on an undergraduate degree in my 30s a dear friend looked into my terrified eyes and said, “Hon, just suit up and show up. That’s really the secret to success in just about everything.”

Just about every day of that four-year journey those words echoed in my head. On days like today, with snow on the ground and bitter-cold temperatures when I knew exactly how many steps it took to get from the UK Coliseum parking lot to White Hall Classroom Building I uttered that mantra as I scraped ice from my windshield. Springtime when cold rains poured down around my umbrella and soaked my shoes and socks, which I would have to wear all day because the classes I needed to get the credits I needed for my degree were at 8 a.m. and 2:15 p.m., I would repeat her words (and maybe add, “even if the suit is soaking wet.”).

Later, after receiving my acceptance to seminary and looking at more years of study ahead of me the mantra changed to, “Just suit up and show up?” Exactly how does one do that within the context of ministry? That’s when I began to learn the value of presence.

Ministry, too, is largely a matter of suiting up and showing up. The suits vary from day to day and context to context. Some days the suit consists of robe and stole to stand before the people of God to proclaim good news and to break the bread and bless the cup, because that’s what Jesus asked us to do…and who am I to deny him? Other days the suit will be shorts, t-shirts and tennis shoes to sit in a picnic shelter on the edge of the woods and listen to teenagers tell stories of their own encounters with our Creator. Suits have also been jeans, t-shirts, work boots and jersey gloves and presence was spreading mud on drywall in the sweltering heat of Tarboro, North Carolina after Floyd left his destruction two years prior.

We all suit up and show up in many ways, whether in service to our vocations, our friends, our families, our community or even in service to complete strangers. When the demands of life start to overwhelm you, remember our stories of long ago when a tiny baby entered into this world because God saw the need to suit up and show up and give to us the greatest gift of presence.

Blessings,
Tracy