A person prayed, “Lord is it true that a thousand years are like a minute to you?”
“Yes, that is true,” answered the Lord.
And is it also true that a million dollars is like a penny to you?
“Yes, this is also true,” affirmed the Lord.
“Lord please give me a penny,” the person asked.
The Lord answered, “Sure… in a minute.”
Our perspective on things and God’s perspective on the same thing can be radically different. Let’s take a look at the quantity of activities we can squeeze into a day for example. Do you feel like life is going a bit too fast? Take the following survey.
- At the grocery store do you keep track of where you would have been had you gotten into the other line? Do you feel bad if the alter-you walks out of the store and you’re still in line?
- Clutter is a sign of hurry. What do your closets look like?
- Is “I’ve been busy,” a standard greeting for you?
We tend to live strenuous lives. We are people living to the very edge of what our bodies and spirits can stand. The simple truth is there is not enough time to read all the books we want to read, see all the friends we want to see, participate in community activities, exercise, work, play, and practice a spiritual discipline. There isn’t ever enough time. But our hope is not in the amount of hours in a day, but in the amount of grace in a day.
Another way to refer to God’s grace is its to talk about God’s relentless love - that keeps us from falling into despair over the unfinished work, the loved one we disappointed, another day gone by without completing the important task. Time management skills only help a little. Trusting that there is grace enough each day, that helps a lot.
Trusting grace enough is looking at an unfinished task and instead of seeing something we’ve failed to do, seeing what that unfinished task represents: namely, something else that’s important that we have done. For example, when we look at a pile of unfolded laundry, can we remember the long phone call we had with that person who needed someone to listen as grace enough?
As we move creatively, not urgently, through our days practicing life giving rhythms of prayer and Sabbath rest help us figure out what enough feels like — and we need to hold each other accountable to Sabbath rest in our hurried culture.
So does the word “rest” sound like a doctor’s recommendation or a holy word to you?
Pastor Mike Woods
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