 |
| Just keep running: life on a treadmill (Image from www.idonedesign.com) |
Life can get rather hectic sometimes, dashing from one activity to the next without a break, until suddenly you look up and realise four months have gone by and you’ve forgotten to do the cleaning and you haven’t seen that friend you promised you would… And you can’t remember the last time you paused for some reflection, prayer or to even open a Bible.
But it’s ok. You can sort it all out. Next week. I mean, you’ve got at least three hours on Saturday after tennis and before dinner with the Joneses to do your laundry and phone your mum and read a Psalm. No problem. Except Saturday comes and you bump into someone on the way back from tennis and end up walking to town with them because you get chatting and you think you might as well go and pick up a few bits from the supermarket because you won’t have time next week anyway and there’s no milk in the fridge. So you end up slightly late for dinner but they don’t really mind and you can call your mum on the way back and do your washing overnight and pray while you’re drifting off to sleep. And then tomorrow you can try to find a time to meet up with that friend you still haven’t seen…
The life-treadmill can make you feel like you just need to keep running, because who knows what might go wrong when you take a break. But sometimes, it’s time to push the big red button, and just stop. Cancel the tennis. Leave the party early. Having plans to rest and to pray still counts as having plans – you’re busy, so you can say no when you need to. You might be the most efficient human ever (you’re probably not), but you can’t sort everything. You can’t. So just pause, and spend some time with the one who can.
