How many trips to the store? How many changes of plans? How to best prepare for our family/friends?
Amidst our bustle (we often feel), the one-liner our hearts often need to hear, is: “Slow Down.”
Remarkably, we often become less and less effective when we attempt to answer our common shortcomings by hitting the nitrous oxide button. Our friend and fellow foxhole captain, Tim McNamara shared how once lost his balance. Tim told the story, explaining that with every desperate step to re-gain his balance, he simply threw himself into a worsening state of off-balance. Quickly, Tim wound up cracking his head on the sidewalk in a bloody mess.
Tim’s story (above) resonates with me. I also try to ‘fix’ off-balance moments with more intensive striving. When disorienting, destabilizing moments roll up on us, Dallas Willard would exhort us to, “ruthlessly eliminate all hurry in your life.”
Dallas challenges us to reshape the ways we relate to our world, events, people, schedule changes, and many other pressures.
Do we not need this crucial ingredient in our holiday seasons? This moment with your loved ones… will never be quite the same again. There will certainly come a day when there will be less of some -- and more of others. Those with whom you celebrate will never be at the same ‘space’ they are now. Some we may never see again after this season. Certainly, these moments are fleeting and often unique.
Let’s slow down. Let us be the ones who tap the brakes, make the space, and cherish individuals for who they are. Let’s take each moment as it comes – as a gift from Almighty God, for the good of our hearts.
A mentor once said, “God speaks at 500 RPM when the world drives us around at a speed of more like 5000 RPM.”
When I slowed down today, I began to hear this: ‘The dimension in which the blessings of God wait’ – those gifts and words and nurture which He WANTS to give us – those blessings can begin to draw towards us – when we slow down.
We tend to think that we need to engage Warp Drive to seize the elusive ‘perfect holiday experience.’ <- This is simply not true. If we listen to the frenetic drive of today’s marketing machines, we WILL get it terribly backward. Our fulfillment is not found in chasing God’s blessings down. Rather, our fulfillment comes in letting His blessings come to rest on us.
My golden puppy loves to play keep-away. He’s happy to let me chase him all over the place when he has some treasure in his possession. But if I want to bring him to me, I have to stop, offer affection, and direct his attention to my love for him. Then he often drops the thing he’s wanting to keep from me.
In the same way, if we make our mission to pursue the thing, we’ll find ourselves striving, becoming frustrated and angry. However, if we focus our hearts on pursuing the greater thing, beyond the thing – we’ll often receive, BOTH.
This Thanksgiving season, let’s let Jesus teach us His, “Third Way.”
Let’s pause – often. Let’s savor moments. Let’s not push too hard -- moving from thing to thing to thing to thing. Instead, let’s learn from Jesus as He invites us to, “Take My yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. My burden is light.” Is this not what He spoke to Martha? Did Mary not have it right? Did Martha not have it wrong?
Which one are we, at this moment?
When we realize we’re not experiencing His presence – and a light burden and easy yoke – it may be that we’re chasing something which doesn’t NEED chasing. Consider letting it come to us. Let’s start with Jesus as the center of our desires. Let’s invite Him to be the LORD of our missions and methods – our schedules and values.
Yes, this takes time. It also takes mold-ability to allow the Holy Spirit to SLOW US DOWN. But this is the place where the nectar of life is flowing. We’ve been offered a source of living water gushing up from our innermost being. If we are not experiencing that, it’s not because this gift is unavailable.
It may be because there’s no place available for His gift to rest.
Let’s slow down, and ask God to help us move at the pace of Heaven’s blessings which He desperately, loving wants to deliver to the children of His lavish love.
