Most people in Silicon Valley kick into high gear on the week after Labor Day. Even though the Bay Area has a nearly year-round outdoor climate and a seemingly endless vacation season, that Fall pixie dust floats down when the calendar turns to September.
Little kids in soccer uniforms trample all over. The guy who didn't return your email all summer suddenly needs your presence in a meeting within 20 minutes. Traffic jams line up outside the school parking lot. Conversations include arcane college football stats. To do lists grow faster than the 'do'ing.
For parents, the month includes an endless, constant, annoying series of forms to fill out. This is when it becomes clear that the legal department has taken over everything related to children. A waiver for lunch? Eight versions of a health history? Out-of-state emergency contacts in case the Bay Area is destroyed by an earthquake or alien invasion... and somehow mommy & daddy are buried in rubble... yet heroically the teacher is able to call a relative four states away... who will arrive in time to administer Tylenol... because the form that authorizes Tylenol was vaporized in the disaster? Huh?
I enjoy the quickening pace that September brings, but at some point for most of us the pace becomes: frantic. Frantic is when things are done out of the fear that not doing them will bring some kind of life crisis. Like the endless forms, a frantic life is driven by "what if" or "if only."
A Christian can be very active and still avoid being frantic. There's a deeper trust that God will do what He says. Activity and work become an expression of trust, an exercise of calling. And an opportunity at some point to simply stop, to "be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10)
DISCUSS: when do you cross that line from busy to frantic? What gets you back?
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5 comments:
I think one thing that gets me over the line from busy to frantic is when I completely lose sight of God and am only focused on myself and my "do" list. It is hard to break out of the frantic once I'm there, but I have seen how the Holy Spirit drops me a hint every now and then. For example: I teach 7th grade English and I'm very easily prone to frantic chaos in my schedule. I tend to start thinking of the 10 things I have to do, and then think I have to do them all at once. My heart beats faster (I think a sign of the frantic stage coming) and I forget about God and the world and throw myself into my work. Then all of a sudden, I realize I have to go use the restroom. Except, I am in class teaching and I can't leave. All of a sudden I need help - and I can't be the one to help myself. It is in the moments like this when I need the outside help. Thankfully, in this situation, I was given grace to hear a still small voice saying, "Well, I guess you need me after all, huh?" and I am brought to my knees, admitting I DO need help (and not just so I can use the restroom).
Very well said, Drew!
Crossing from engaged to frantic for me happens when I try to react to every voice (metaphorically and literally) seeking my attention and action.
What brings me back:
o When I give myself permission to not react to every voice.
o When I decide to respond to the important voices and needs.
o When I connect my proactive and reactive output to what is healthy and helpful (I mean that holistically-- including, of course, spiritual health, to the extent one can separate it) for me, my family, and the communities around me.
o When I admit to myself (and sometimes my "community") that I have limitations.
o When I express my desperate need for God to save me from the self- and others-inflicted hamster wheel on which I run.
o When I (too infrequently) STOP and listen to the still, small voice.
Kindel, David and Greg,
Thanks for your comments. Time is something that not only needs to be managed (as in getting the most done in the least time)... but also controlled. I'm more frantic when something urgent and controlling forces me to act, whether or not that's the right thing for me to be doing at the time. The right thing (as greg mentioned) is healthy even when it's busy. And like Kindel, for me the help has to come from beyond the here-and-now... from God himself.
so true. so true. especially the part about the forms for a possible alien invasion...
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