Too busy to read this?

[In case you’ve been disappointed at the lack of posts in the last week and a half, rest assured that I wrote several that were deemed too ranty and non-publishable by my in-house editor.]

One of the marks of “modern society” is the idea of busyness.  Within our work at church, we hear so many people remark how busy they are, too busy to do things at times.  I struggle against that mentality, being a lover of work myself.  But what happens when the things we “work” on in an attempt to gain meaning in our lives, ends up taking over our lives, demeaning us as human beings? 

In a resource published by the United Reformed Church, I read an article by Christopher Jamison, a Benedictine monk, in which he states, “Life is busy but many of us speak as though ‘being busy’ is a force beyond our control.”

I’m surprised how often we feel like we can justify our absences, our apathy, our superficial relationships with our self-important busyness that is “out of our hands.”  This then, I think, relates to our inability to be mentally, spiritually, emotionally present wherever we find ourselves physically.

I struggle with these issues myself – of wanting to find meaning in our work as “Community Hosts,” but to avoid the urge to fill all my time so there is no Sabbath.  During one somewhat trying time in my life, a wise person once told me, “This is your life.”  These moments musn’t be taken for granted.  Annie Dillard says something to the effect of, “The way we spend our days is the way we spend our lives.”

As this is the human struggle, we must find balance in finding meaning in the way we spend our days so we live the one life we have with a sense of pride that we chose relationships over money, environment over exploitation, peace over a fragile sense of self-worth.

Mini-sermon over for the day. :)