Cycles

I think I’ve chased my tail for so long I forgot what I planned to do if I caught it! Have you had one of those weeks? Where things snowball one into another and you just keep rolling with very little slowdown. Sometimes we roll from one urgent need to another, and finally the day comes that you can stop long enough to look back and see all the things you have been doing. We stay so busy…

One of my favorite preachers used to have a favorite sermon called “Stop the World, I Want to Get Off!”  When I was a teenager, I didn’t appreciate what he meant the way I do now decades later. So much I want to do and so much I HAVE to do, and rarely do the two coincide. All the while I feel that clock ticking, hurry, hurry, get it done.

How do we slow or stop this cycle of hurry? It’s a concern I really struggle with. Maybe because I’m a firstborn, with a type A personality, I’m just “driven” this way, but do I have to stay this way? Is it because I can do so much I take on all this load of stuff? Or because I haven’t learned to say no and prioritize? I love being productive and in my line of work (web development) it seems to be feast or famine. I either have too much to do, or I’m wondering what bushes I can beat to find more work. Better make hay while the sun shines, right? Better to wear out than rust out?

The truth is, we all have only 24 hours in a day. And all we can do is all we can do. But I think the Lord set a priority for us at Creation when He gave us the Sabbath. A day each week to stop, to let go of the hurry and hustle. A day to spend with Him and recharge our internal batteries. But even here we can fall into the trap of cramming too much into a day. Some lessons we have to go over again and again….