I have recently returned from holiday (hence the break from this blog). Although it is sometimes true that “a change is as good as a rest,” there is nothing quite like a good long rest for recharging the batteries and refreshing body, mind and spirit.
I have always been a little puzzled by the song “Busy doing nothing: working the whole day through!” Perhaps it is a description of those who fill up their days with what looks like meaningful activity but ultimately it amounts to nothing much! Or maybe it is a variation on the adage from the Soviet era in Russia “You pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work!”
I have been interested in the recent discussion among Christian leaders about what represents an honest working week for a pastor. I tend to think that little is achieved by those who are clock-watchers, who clock in and clock off on the dot every day.
Yet I have come to see that there is a lack of discipline involved in the lives of both the workshy and the workaholic. The workshy and the workaholic can both operate out of the anxious chaos of a disordered mind that either can’t get its act together to do what is required or frets about getting everything right.
In the former case the workshy do not know when to start; in the other the workaholic does not know when to stop.
I have been talking to some men who are around my age and, like me, over state retirement age, but still working. Here is the dilemma we face: we want to be sufficiently engaged by the things we take on in life but recognise that there are lines that we cross into being over-committed and stretched. We all need some margins into which the script of our lives can spill at times. If, however, we live life right up to the edge of every page every day we have no space to breathe or rest.
We all need to learn how to press the pause button. This is necessary for every task. I need to know when this blog is finished and not fuss over it for a disproportionate amount of time. I also need to know when the sermon is finished and ready to go so that I do not overcook it. I need to know daily when to call it a day and switch off for a while.
Coming back to that holiday. It was good to have 15 days to enjoy a change of scene and pace.
One of the things I enjoyed was reading a few novels, including the latest one by Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything. In fact, because the ship’s library on our cruise was closed half-way into our holiday, I got to read it twice!
In the book two of the characters get together and share what they call “untold stories.” A common thread of these stories was the way that people find it difficult to know who they really are.
Sometimes we need to slow down long enough to give ourselves the space to reflect long enough to reset our lives and remember who we are before we re-enter the world of the common round and daily task.
Photo by Mikolaj Felinski on Unsplash
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