Pursue a Healthy Balance and Avoid Extreme Responses
After months of waiting, I headed out for a spiritual retreat. I arrived with anticipation of my time there. Though not enforced with unbending resolve, the center promotes silence.
It stands as one of their values. I relished the promise of solitude in their rural, nearly untainted environment.
Filled with expectation, I settled into my preassigned room. After a wordless dinner, enjoyed with my fellow sojourners, I explored the retreat center’s many forested paths.
I walked about a mile, only covering a portion of the property’s crisscrossing trails. Since it was a humid evening, moisture soon formed on my skin and then dripped off my body.
My usual strides embrace intentionality, but that’s not an ideal tempo for spiritual contemplation. Yet when I slowed my gait, the bugs assaulted me.
Out of self-preservation, their attacks forced me to maintain a brisk pace, even though I would have preferred to meander in this pristine paradise.
I spotted deer tracks on the path, first one set and then a second. I rounded a bend in the wooded trail and was surprised to see a deer some thirty feet away.
With no antlers, I surmised it was a doe. But as I got closer and could make out details, I assumed it was a fawn, albeit a mature one since it was mid-August. Even though I was unsure if it was a doe or a buck, I persisted in thinking of the deer as female.
She showed no fear. She did not run away.
We just stared at each other. I stood in awe. She seemed curious about me. I wondered if this is what it was like with Adam and Eve in their idyllic Eden paradise.
I had an unexplained urge to talk to the doe, but that would be irrational, so I remained quiet. I was willing to linger in this moment, but the insect portion of creation wanted to feast on my blood, so I eased slowly forward.
The deer stood still as I gingerly approached.
I expected my advance would spook her, but she didn’t budge. When I closed to within twenty feet, she leisurely sauntered off the trail. She never ran or showed any sign of fear but ambled off into the woods, seemingly unconcerned with my presence.
I circled around and five minutes later found her in about the same spot. She spied me watching her, but nonchalantly returned to sniffing the ground before her.
I covered more trails that evening, communing with God as I walked. That’s when I received insight about creation and our mandate to steward it wisely.
At creation, God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it, and to rule over the animals (Genesis 1:28).
To subdue means to bring it under control, but this doesn’t give us the right to abuse it. And to rule wisely means we must be good caretakers.
Some view the earth as fragile and insist we must protect it, regardless of cost or inconvenience. Others say that creation is resilient and adaptable, able to counteract whatever people do to it.
There on the wooded trail, I realized both perspectives are right—and both are wrong. Our Creator did indeed make the earth resilient and adaptable, able to deal with anything that nature or animals can throw at it.
Yet we must take care to not do anything stupid or extreme.
To our discredit, we’ve “advanced” to a point where our consumption, greed, and blatant disregard for our world is indeed threatening it.
We must, instead, be good stewards and wise caretakers—not out of fear but out of respect.
Life Lesson We must respect the habitat God has gifted to us.
Read more in Peter Lyle DeHaan’s latest book Sticky Living featuring his compelling story-driven insights and tips, part of the Sticky Series.
Peter Lyle DeHaan is an entrepreneur and businessman who has managed, owned, and started multiple businesses over his career. Common themes at every turn have included customer service, sales and marketing, and leadership and management.
He shares his lifetime of business experience and personal insights through his books to encourage, inspire, and occasionally entertain.