It's late.
I've got things to do and a cat to bounce off the bed.
All afternoon, I've been dinking around.
And curious at this peace that I really shouldn't have.
My quiet time flowed in and out of a few Psalms (39 & 40 if you're wondering) and distilled into this one prayer:
"Lord, will you teach me to completely depend on you in a life where discipline is balanced by rest…and steeped in love?"
If you poke around Psalms 39 & 40, you'll read where a king asks to be rescued from his own rebellion. I'm no king, but I'm well acquainted with rebellion.
Another tidbit , "We are merely moving shadows and all our busy working ends up nothing."
Ouch.
I've been learning to rest this year…and infusing a bit of laziness of my own experience.
Social media follows me along like a mangy dog.
Quiet and solace are scarce.
And I've got a few more months before my lease is up and a next step emerges and – I'm guessing – a different pace and less solitude.
My heart follows my mind on a winding path of wandering. I'm wasting time.
My soul gets wrung out sometimes in this Rube Goldberg-ish connection of random objects, leaps, and ideas. The New York Times spills out over the day and I wonder where it – the day – went.
While my spirit knows a grace and peace that is so fresh and new that it seems to drip sweet peachy juices all over this life, other parts have become funky. Funk dog funky.
Grace and peace fill my soul; laziness tempts it to languish towards a spiritual manginess.
I'm not advocating "doing more" or "doing better;" both rely on an unreliable "me."
I'm hoping to draw up close to a table piled with a rich feast of ancient wisdom and fresh hope alongside people who come as scratchy and flea-bitten as I. To pass the meat and potatoes (or boca burgers and brocolli) of a rich life, get up and invite others to stop, eat, and drink; and make room for more.
Not a sedentary life, just a more mindful one.
A mindful life that includes running.
And swimming.
And cycling so that I occupy this short and wonderful life fully and no longer rest on my…largesse.
Rest and Mindful Action…loving and living simple…that's still the goal.
Any thoughts?
What are they doing in heaven today by Washington Phillips…good old bluesy tunes.
I like the double entendre: “rest on my largesse” – there’s a lot of that going around.
this is a good meditation on you fighting that syndrome. we encourage one another as we are mindful and in the muddling mess, fighting our way to be able to see things as they are and respond accordingly.
“Social media follows me along like a mangy dog. Quiet and solace are scarce.” *Picture perfect* Recent weeks found me in technology hiatus-mode, deliberately and on purpose. It helped that the days were substantially more engaging as I’ve started serving in a new role appropriately dubbed “Assistant for Community Impact”… I do think rest is (or can be, should be?) a holy calling. God Himself rested…and set aside a whole day for us to follow suit. Yet sometimes a single day isn’t enough. When that happens He gives us appointed seasons of rest. Or so that’s been my experience. And when it’s time to move–on HIS timetable, maybe not ours–the Spirit has a way of speaking “Go. Now” into our innermost being. You’ll know…when it’s time to swim. 🙂