Life is busy. That is good. But sometimes I have so many things to do, I hardly know what to do first. Usually, I end up making a list and set about doing all those things.
Then, suddenly, I find myself so busy doing things that I forget to just live (allusion to Pollyanna). I am so busy — “serving the Lord” as we all like to put it — planning out the children’s Bible lessons for next week, printing out coloring pages for another person’s class, translating lessons for still another person’s class, organizing for the annual children’s program coming up soon, working out music specials for the upcoming Bible Conference, calling up people to work this all out. . . then my own schedule: completing the course work for school, music practice, reading books, keeping up with friends, printing out DIY bag tutorials for one friend, looking up crochet videos for another, microwavable gingerbread cookies for my mother, blogging (which often gets set aside) and on and on . . .
I don’t have much time left over . . . And what time I have left over, I tend to use up for myself, sometimes foolishly, wastefully.
And I get selfish. I begin thinking that nothing else matters as much as this schedule I have to accomplish or that nothing else is so important as completing the items in my to-do list.
“Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). When I forget to stand still, I forget to marvel. I forget to wonder. I forget to think right.
Being still. When was the last time you were still? We are like crazy little termites hurrying about as if the sky would fall if we didn’t keep ourselves occupied. Being still is perhaps the last thing we would think of if someone asked us what we’d like to do.
But simply getting up from my little corner and staring at the open sky does wonders. It just puts things in perspective. My little corner is not the whole world. There are other people besides me. And when I do stop to think, my mind slowly begins to realize once more how little I am. How insignificant. How tiny. I’m in this little corner. This little city. In this little country. There are so many other countries. Thousands of cities. Millions of people. Billions of people.
Look up at the sky today. God made it immeasurable for a purpose: to let you and me see how little we are. How insignificant. God doesn’t need me. Nor does He need you.
Yet He loved me. He loved you.
Your to-do list? Your schedule?
You can smile now.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? (Ps. 8:3-4)