On my last blog I had been thinking about slowing down... how God blesses me when I do... Like when I go for a walk and just listen... that's where that "quote" came from. I don't think I'm Aristotle or anything.
I've really been thinking everyone is too busy. Why are we so busy? I thinks there’s a lot of reasons...
I have chronic fatigue syndrome which leaves me unable to be pointlessly busy for the most part. This can be a blessing in disguise...I know there’s a good kind of busyness and productiveness of course, but I’m talking about our restless need to always be doing something in order not to really think or feel, in order to perhaps escape our problems and pain or just life's common disappointments. It never works. It doesn’t.
What about all these “busy” people I see at Bread Co. They have their suits, their laptops and are by themselves; some of their faces despondent. Is busyness a cover for loneliness? Are crowds shuffling around together in loneliness? Have we lost our ability to connect? We’re all guarded, we’ve got a schedule to keep, no room for much
but do, do, do. We can barely respond to emergencies, because they’re not in our schedule or our programs. We probably don't even know what constitutes an emergency.
I know I'm talking in general terms here, so I'll be specific. I think we Americans are very selfish people. We worship comfort and entertainment. We have our plans for fun, and God forbid something or someone interfere with that, say, like a hurting friend or neighbor. God forbid we should include people in our "fun plans" that don't look, dress, or think like us, or that we don't know too well. We're just so shallow. I hope I can really fall out of this stupid box. We think we are righteous cause we've "scheduled" in time to help others. Well, what about the needs that don't fall within our schedule or our neat little agenda? There's plenty of those. They get totally overlooked or ignored. People get overlooked and forgotten.
Do I think goals are bad? No. Is planning bad? No. But are we pursuing our own goals to the exclusion of being a good neighbor, or of really caring for other people, which is what life is all about. Of course we can’t do that without God.
Yesterday, I heard on the radio some interesting statistics. Americans are the most bible illiterate we've ever been. Most Americans don't even know one of the ten commandments (and this includes church goers) and here's a funny/ sad thing--the most quoted "bible" verse is "God helps those who help themselves" which isn't even in the bible. Most people think this is one of the 10 commandments. If people live by this, no wonder everyone watches out for #1. We all do it. It's sick, but everyone else is doing it, so we think it's normal.
Without being still sometimes, we can’t even hear God. Our very busyness now may be the very thing that’s killing our soul or keeping it dead, though we might be too numb with comforts to notice, until it's too late? Hopefully not. I'm wakin' up. God help me. God help us.
2 comments:
most people are Manuela
So true, Manuela :( It's very sad, isn't it.
I think that God is so patient - watching us go about our selfish little lives, seeing how small they are, knowing how rich they would be if we would only let him in.
But we don't because we think he's like a giant version of a small, stodgy, vicious, angry little man and there's enough of those out in the street without having to worship a giant one.
I'm so glad he's not like that. He's our giant papa who wants us to climb in his lap.
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