Good Tuesday, Y’all! How’s your coffee?
I used to teach time management seminars to corporate managers and executives. In the days before smart phones and tablets, I carried around the full sized 8 1/2” x 11” life planner briefcase as if it were my life source and I didn’t do anything that wasn’t written in my calendar or on my task list. I scheduled everything. And when I say everything, I mean
E V E R Y T H I N G.
I even blocked off time to be ‘spontaneous’. I don’t know if there was ever such a thing but I definitely could have used a 12 step recovery program for this particular addiction.
Looking back, I bought into the idea that the company I worked for peddled: that planning was living. Also in hindsight, I’ve come to know that what I was really doing was avoiding living deeply and fully. I was as flat at the paper I planned my days on. I looked busy because being busy was a badge of honor in the corporate culture of being busy for the sake of being busy. If you didn’t have an immediate task at hand you made yourself appear busy by planning out what you were going to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year … planning how to make your life good someday rather than seeking the goodness of today.
And here’s what else I’ve come to know: earning the Busy Badge has nothing to do with being who God created me to be. It has nothing to do with being, period. The very foundation of my existence is that I am a beloved child of God, created in the image of Love. The very foundation of your existence is that you are a beloved child of God, created in the image of Love. All else grows from this reality. The purpose of all that we do is this reality.
In this Kingdom reality, we learn that we are not in competition with each other for anything because we understand that our very existence is dependent on each other. This is God’s purpose, that we all thrive as the beloved people we are created to be. If you are hungry I cannot be truly full. If you are hurting I cannot be truly whole. If you are lost I cannot be truly secure.
Whatever we put on our calendars or task lists doesn’t define us or create purpose. The events and tasks we make time for in our days reflect what we truly believe the foundation of our existence to be.
God invites us into quiet reflection of who and whose we are not so that we can escape the busyness of our lives but enable us to remember our created purpose: to live in communion with God and each other every moment of every day. Letting this shape our days is what enables us to live deeply and fully.
What’s on your “To Be” page for today?
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 