Too long gone

Apologies for those who have been coming to this blog spot the last few days only to find the last post being over a week old! Where does the time go? The longer I live, the more aware I seem to be that time passes much too quickly. Of course that is quite the misnomer as time passes at the same rate regardless of age. I grapple with the reality of space and time.

Too often life occurs like a continuous confluence of routines and cycles. Last Thursday seems like yesterday as life is consistently marked by the rolling of trash cans out to the curb and the cycle of lawn sprinklers running their course. Which reminds me it is Thursday and I need to roll the trash can to the curb again. Please don't let me forget!

What is the pace of life supposed to be? Writing this, I realize I've not spent an evening at home since last Thursday which may account for part of my life being lived at "blur speed." At times one has to wonder if we're living a life by divine design or if life is somehow designing us. Allowing the tyranny of life's routines and cycles to press us into something other than what we are created to be is more frequently the case. I often grapple with the balance between "being" and "doing."

Does Jesus have an intended "pace" for our lives? The OT prophet Isaiah indicates there is certainly room for silence in our relationship with the Creator ("Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the pace of judgment" -- Is. 41:1). The Psalmist exhorts toward periods of contemplation in urging the reader to "Be still and know" that God is the One who will be exalted among the nations and in the earth (Ps. 46:10).

Yet, it would be a mischaracterization to think all Jesus and His disciples did each day was to sit around and meditate or merely discuss spirituality. Just one occasion during Jesus' earthly ministry, the feeding of some 5,000 people, would have likely been no "easy day at the office." For Jesus to invest in that many lives with the creative energy necessary to feed that many people with only "five loaves and two fish," you can assume it was a significant outlay of emotional and spiritual energy. How did He and His disciples do it on a consistent and repeatable basis?

In Mark 6:31, the text indicates there were "so many people coming and going" that Jesus and the disciples didn't even have enough time to eat. Have you been there? I certainly have! Jesus says to His disciples, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." For me, that is a great picture... the disciples and Jesus perhaps rolling out a spot on a big boulder and catching a few "z's" in the warm afternoon sun. How cool is that?

"Peter, what did you do this afternoon?" "Ah, not much really, just took a little siesta with Jesus and the boys over near Gethsemane."

Too often we take some kind of sadistic approach to our schedules thinking that if we find our tongue hanging out and our bodies collapsing at the end of the day we have found "higher" ground. I'm finding my tongue hanging out and waking up at 2:30am on the living room sofa where I dozed off before finishing the chapter I was reading as a low spot in my week. There is much "higher" ground to be found, if we are but only willing to seek it.

While even just a week is too long gone from this blog, perhaps it is time I really get disciplined about my spiritual schedule before I'm too long gone? Being disciplined even two or three weeks in a row just simply isn't enough. I must find that longing to "rest in the Lord" as part of daily life, even when I'm most busy.

How is your schedule and what do you think Jesus might feel about it?