Tuesday, July 17, 2012
It’s counter-culture really.
We’ve been taught to do more. The more you do, the better you look, the more
worth you carry. If you work more hours, you’ll move up the career ladder more
quickly. If you keep your home immaculate, you’ll be the envy of your friends,
not to mention housewife of the year. However, there’s something that doesn’t
sit quite right with me. The New Living Translation of Psalm 39:6 pinpoints it,
“We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.”
NOTHING.
In my last correspondence
with my mentor, she said, “We have
been brought up to DO. We're not good enough if we don't do. You're
not good enough unless you work hard, unless you garden and can and get up
early and clean and bake for others and do and do and do. What about just
being? What about just talking to God all through the day…”
That thought resonated in my heart for a week. All week long
echoing, “Do less. Be more.” Especially with my family: resisting the urge to
clean instead of just being with my golden heads. Putting aside my work at 9
o’clock to spend time with the engineer. In visiting with my mother-in-law attempting
to share some of my resolve, she offers her wisdom and life-findings, “I
realize now, the time is so short.”
Yet the world says, do, do,
do. When I reflect on what I’ve learned about eucharisteo, thanksgiving (thanks
for God’s gifts that bring joy) there isn’t much do in that. In fact, I believe that doing takes emphasis off the person you are serving and puts it on
a tangible task like the Martha vs. Mary debate in Mark 10:38-42. While Martha
runs around scurrying to do, Mary
sits at Jesus feet and Jesus’ reply is “Mary has choose that good part, which
will not be taken away from her,” (verse 42.) Jesus wanted Martha to do less, and
look at Him. Jesus wants me to do less, and be more. So often, since this
revelation, I find myself saying Jesus, direct
my path, (Proverbs 16:9.)
“You do not delight in the tasks I can do or I would do them; you do not take
pleasure in a long checked off to do list,” Psalm 51:16, my paraphrase.
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