Issue 162
Do you find yourself persisting in the belief that sooner or later things will calm down? It is a bit hectic now you tell yourself and others but once this mad time is over things will be easier. When this mad time is over you will find that a new mad time has begun and the next project is upon you, and sometimes aspects of the previous project have not yet been completed, so it’s a little madder than you thought and the days of easing off for a spell will have to be postponed – again.
Living and working like this becomes almost cyclical in that the pressurised times keep coming around yet the calmer times do not arrive. Still, in your mind you harbour the thought that ‘an easier day is coming’.
The sad thing about this belief is that it invites others, especially those close to you to be patient and wait for your time and attention which sadly is unavailable just at the moment. At its best this is misleading; at its worst, it is a lie, which all too often gets exposed when those around you have given up on waiting, grown up or grown away and have decided to make their way without your presence. The quieter day is not coming. The challenge is to build the quietness into today. The space and time will not arrive after the madness – we must make space and time during the madness.
Jesus found time for John and Mary whilst he was on the cross. No-one had a better excuse to be completely absorbed in his work at that time than he, but even there he made room for his mother and his best friend. Balance is about today, not some imagined future or some Utopian dream that the lions of your work will lie down whilst you play with the lambs. You will have to cage the lions and shut up their roar so that other activities can take place. Sometimes we can get into the habit of insisting that what we are doing is so important that it can’t be interrupted. It would be wiser to see that some interruptions are so important that they cannot be ignored. If we persist in this long-term behaviour, eventually a quiet day will arrive but it will be far too quiet, for we will be living it in isolation. Jesus placed great emphasis on the importance of today.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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