So often we get this so wrong.
What is it about our lives that we don’t take the time to smell the roses? (we even call that smell the coffee now.)
These are a few scenarios I encountered today, there is no judgement, it is a chronically first world issue. We all get it wrong – just to different degrees.
A toddler was having an epic tantrum in the supermarket but it was a holiday so both parents were present and one lifted the child and took him out of the situation. I was in the queue at the checkout and engaged with the lady in front about the child because I have been there in a supermarket with a toddler inconsolable because I couldn’t afford whatever it was they wanted. I endured the looks of sympathy, the shaking heads, the angry heads. But I needed to stay in the situation because otherwise, I was setting myself up for years of misery.
A toddler was in a buggy with his parent sitting outside a café. The parent was engaged in conversation with a friend, the child tried to get the attention of the parent and so the parent passed their phone to them.
Another toddler was watching a video on an iPad.
Our toddlers are getting busy – when they could be resting and they are learning it from us.
We spend our time on our phones, we collect emails constantly, we reply to text messages instantly, we play games when we are not doing any of the other things. We are always doing something, if not two or three things at a time. We juggle our time as though we had control over it and we get tired, so very, very tired.
There is another way of living, a different way, a way that turns busy upside down and changes everything. We may not be toddlers but we have to stop. Toddlers have little control over their choices, but we do.
We can choose life with God, we can choose a life of living and living well. When we ask the Lord to come to dwell in us, we can be to breathe in a restful manner. Sitting in a comfy chair, opening our bible and reading God’s living word, opening our hearts to the inbreathing of the Spirit changing our thought processes, changing our heart processes as we fix our eyes on Jesus and become as we grow closer and closer to the Lord and more and more like Jesus.
It is to him we look when we investigate how to balance a very busy life with a restful spiritual life.
Mary and Martha or Martha and Mary
38-40 As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.” 41-42 The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”
Luke 10:38-42 (MSG)
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