THOUGHTS FROM THE PASTOR
September
Many people today are very busy. At least,
that's what they tell you when you ask them how they are. They tell you
how busy they are, how tired they are, how crazy life is. Even retired
people tell you this. And, in truth, many people are very busy: working,
raising children and running children here and there, looking after
grandchildren, trying to keep up with projects around the house, being involved
in church activities and ministries, volunteering for community programs, caring
for family members who are ill.
But some busy people -- perhaps many-- are so busy because they are busy with
other things as well. they are busy surfing the Internet, e-mailing,
texting, twittering, blogging, going on Facebook, talking on a cell phone,
checking out You Tube, playing the latest electronic games, watching Fox News or
CNN non-stop, going on Facebook once again. It's as if the busyness that
comes with every day responsibilities isn't enough -- it's as if people need to
be constantly busy, continually caught up in something, every moment filled with
doing something, anything.
But why? Could it be a way of avoiding, escaping, what more and more seems
to be a scary and unmanageable world? That's the thing about this type of
busyness: it distracts you, it keeps your mind off hard realities. One
author has commented that "we are distracted by and engulfed by the technologies
that we have created, and by the constant barrage of so-called information that
comes our way" that the most responsible action we could take is to shut
everything down long enough to have a quiet time in which to do the thinking
required to make good decisions and engage productively this scary world.
Of course people have been busily distracting themselves long before Alexander
Graham Bell or Bill Gates came on the scene. One hundred fifty years ago a
theologian wrote, "Busyness makes it almost impossible for a person to form a
heart." And what he meant is that when people are in a state of constant
distraction, they cannot focus their minds long enough on what truly matters to
have hearts formed by God, the Gospel of Christ, the Spirit. Instead of
having a strong center out of which to decide and act and live, their hearts and
minds constantly flit from here to there and their lives and world become even
more overwhelming and unmanageable.
So what's to be done? We could do no better than to take a page from
Jesus. In the midst of the constant demands and pressures and distractions he
faced day after day, now and then Jesus would get up very early in the morning
and go off to a lonely place to pray, think, and pray some more. In other
words, he found a quiet place, free of distractions and demands, where his heart
could be formed more and more by God. It was the only way Jesus could keep
being Jesus and do what he had to do.
I think we each of us need such a place, such a time, if we are to have a center
to our lives out of which we are able to manage our lives and this world with
faith, hope, strength. We need to turn away from the demands, turn off the
distractions, and turn toward God and take the time to pray, listen, think.
Especially listen and think. Most of us probably do a pretty good job of
telling God what we want; listening to the word God speaks to us in the Gospel
and all that happens may be another matter, however. That's the thing
about busyness: it makes it hard to listen. And the other thing about
busyness is that there's no time to do any real thinking. The great
temptation for people today is to allow the "talking-heads" on radio and
television to do their thinking for them and simply repeat what they say, with
little or no thought. Thinking is as much a part of the life of faith as
is prayer and listening. Lack of thinking leads to bad theology and
rickety faith that are no match for the realities of our lives and world.
But to pray, listen, think, and form a heart requires n0n-busyness from time to
time -- the courage to stop and open ourselves to God, the Gospel, the Spirit.
In lives like ours with all the demands, and in a world like ours with all the
distractions, it could perhaps be the bravest and most responsible thing we do.
And who knows? Maybe one day we will tell people, when they ask how we
are, that we're not that busy or tired and are managing well, be cause we've
been to a quiet, lonely place and are strong in heart.
God be with you,
Jeff