It's 3:30 on Tuesday. I've got the unexpected gift of an hour in the middle of my afternoon between a bunch of appointments. I head towards the library: a talk to put together for family weekend and a day and a half worth of e-mails piled up in my in-box are at the top of my agenda.
Then the nagging voice hits me: "You haven't spent time with the Lord in a day or two. What if you spent at least part of the next hour in Scripture and prayer?
The task-list voices fight back: "Are you kidding? You haven't checked e-mail in a couple days, either--there's going to be tons of stuff piled up for you if you put it off any longer. Besides, this talk on Friday is for parents, it needs to not sound stupid!"
But I already begin to see the problems with task-list voice. There are always more e-mails to be answered. There are always talks to be written or books I need to read or weekend retreats to plan. If I allow them to, this flurry of activity could become the sum total of what my life is about. I can be a perpetually busy person whose life is oriented around nothing larger than the demands on my time at this current moment.
But I long for my life to be about something much bigger, much more significant than that. I long for my life to be oriented around a story that takes all those e-mails, all that talk prep or retreat planning and actually gives it meaning. I need something to put it all into perspective. I want to be on a journey full of purpose, meaning and significance, not just jogging on the treadmill of today's tasks that I check off today only to have three new ones replace it tomorrow.
So I spent half an hour in Scripture and prayer. Not a spectacular thing in and of itself. Just a small step of faithfulness towards a larger world pregnant with meaning, power, and clarity.
1 comment:
I seem to remember quiet times in David Library between classes... what, did we have more free time then? Head to the cubicles one day for old time's sake.
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