31 Days: When only one thing is needed

  

The day started badly, thoughts swirling and coiling in on each other and spiralling down into a place of shadows and dark corners. Challenging conversations, looming deadlines and a lot of work to be done.

Tonight is good; calm and peace is restored. I feel at rest. Tired but not exhausted.

I didn’t do all the right things to incorporate rest or rhythm into my day. I worked while I ate lunch. I ignored my computer’s software that reminds me to take regular breaks – more than once. Yes, I’m definitely a work in progress.

But I did one thing well. I made a very short list of the the most important things for the day and I worked until they were done. I didn’t overestimate what was achievable. I didn’t get distracted by other things. And when I logged out of my computer, picked up my bag and left, I felt a weight lifted and a lightness restored.

And I’m reminded of Martha’s story in Luke:

Luke 10:38-42: As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” 

Mary was distracted with so many things to do and it made her worried and upset, especially with her sister Mary. I wonder if Martha was preparing an extravagant banquet when Jesus would have been happy with a sandwich and her company.

I wonder if Martha was trying to do everything except the one thing that was most important in that moment, being with Jesus.

What if we let go of the many things we’re worried about getting done, and focus on the one thing that is needed right now?

This Day 9 of The Rhythm of Rest series (Write 31 Days challenge).

31 Days: Slowing Down to Rest

Have you ever noticed how worry and hurry seem to be joined at the hip?

When I’m worried that I’m going to be late, I hurry. When I’m worried that I won’t get everything done that needs to be done when it needs to be done, I hurry. When I’m worried that I’m not going to meet the expectations and timeframes of others, I hurry.

When I’m in a hurry I’m only interested in the destination. When I’m in a hurry I’m tight and tense. Everything about me is hurried. I walk faster, I talk faster, my breathing is shallower (if I remember to breathe at all – sometimes I catch myself holding my breath), my movements lose their coordination and I get clumsy. When I’m in a hurry I lose my patience and my tolerance for the slowness of others.

When I’m in a hurry I only notice what I need to get to where I’m going. When I’m in a hurry I become a person I don’t much like.

But when I choose to slow down, when I start to breathe again, I look around and I start to notice the things around me. The things that help me rest.

I notice the morning sunlight illuminating blossom petals in my garden.

I notice how the muscles in my legs move as I walk (a little slower). How the rhythm returns to my stride.

I notice the expressions on the faces of the people I meet.

I notice the floating duck silhouetted against the last blush of twilight on my way home from work.

I notice how the spring air is soft on my skin.

I notice the scent of flowers in the evening.

When I slow down, I hear God whispering and I realise that he’s been speaking to me all along.

In An Unhurried life, Alan Fadling writes, “When I found myself slowing down inside, the Lord seemed to say, ‘Don’t talk trust and live worry.’ … Jesus was inviting me to live with trust in him instead of worry.”

And that’s also the invitation of Jesus to me and to you. To slow down and walk with him, to live with trust in him instead of worry. The invitation to trust him is also an invitation to rest in him, to “learn the unforced rhythms of grace”.

This is Day 3 of The Rhythm of Rest series (Write 31 Days challenge).

Like a Worry-free Flower

Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom.  They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.
~Jim Carrey

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

~ Matthew 6:28-30

Ah, to be more like a flower, and turn my face to the Son instead of worrying.