Morning: Psalm 97:1-12
Ezekiel 4:1-17
Hebrews 6:1-12
Luke 9:51-62
Evening: Psalm 124:1-8
It's Monday and my day off. For this pastor, it means sleeping late (at least 6:15 instead of 5:30), fixing my husband's breakfast for him (at least Mondays it's a hot breakfast...), laundry, visiting my mother, and shopping. I even try to take a break from this blog on Mondays, as one of my pastor friends encouraged me. Rest my brain and spirit, if you will.
I really enjoy the shopping part of my Mondays. There's a song from the musical "Carnival", that has lyrics that I sing to myself on Mondays as I breeze through TJ Maxx:
Break away
Kick your heels up and spend a day
Buy a new feather with figora bead
Buy yourself something you really don’t need
Something sweet like
Beautiful candy
Too pretty to eat
Treat yourself
To some dreams from the upper shelf
Buy something someone to kiss to produce
Something you’re sure is of no worthly use
Try a treat like"
Beautiful candy, to pretty to eat.
Stop living for reason
Time to start living for rhyme
I’m on a spree and I’m
Going to make sure it’s a perfectly good waste of time.
Sometimes, though, I feel it WAS a waste of time. I feel guilty when I think of all I could be doing for the Kingdom on my day off. I read the labels on the clothes I buy, and think about the sweat shops where they were manufactured. I always have more reading to catch up on - and I really should exercise so I can present a healthy body to God. Instead I go shopping.
I read the scriptures today, and wonder if, as in Hebrews I am producing only thistles on Mondays with my fall back to shopping, and should have done "things that belong to salvation." Jesus himself in Luke's reading today tells a questioning disciple, wanting to have it all, if you're following me, it's all or nothing; you're putting that all behind you - especially the beautiful candy no one would eat. People are starving for heaven's sake!
But I must say, my Monday marketplace jaunts do get me out in the world. Otherwise, I can live in the church, feeding only on church work and sermon preparations; carrying burdens and breathing my congregation's lives and spirit, whom I love dearly. They are like family. But forgetting there is a world out there, of strangers behind the counters and in the streets with whom I can share the love and hope of Christ with a smile. Who wait on me, when I need care. The $2.99 bargain on something I really don't need helps me lighten up, remembering there are sweet and simple pleasures, that on the surface seem useless. But they can bring perspective, and lighten a heavy load. When we feel we are not doing enough or producing enough or loving and caring and being enough - treating ourself to something from the upper shelf - without guilt - is just what a day off can be about. A new bird feeder, a geranium plant, a bar of foo-foo soap, a jar of imported jam, a bathing suit. Because maybe, just maybe, God has put it there for such a moment, as a glimpse of heaven, where whimsy and worth and purpose meet and it is all valuable and beautiful. Maybe it's because God wants to say, you're beautiful and you're worth it.
I will finish this blog, I'll thank God for you all, and pray for the world. I'll throw in another load of laundry, before I take Mom to lunch. And then I'll stop off at TJ Maxx. There's some really silly things on the upper shelves there that would make God smile.
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3 comments:
I need to hear things like this. I do and do and don't feel I can stop sometimes. And when I do say I need a break, it's always with a twinge of or a big dose of guilt. There is always something that needs to be done. When I get tired and zone out, then I feel I've wasted time that could have been better spent. It's a never ending treadmill. Where do we find the balance? What will happen to the church's many jobs that need done, the programs lacking enough volunteers? I feel as though I am running sometimes (often with scissors...) and do have have permission to get off the spiritual treadmill. Between work and church activities, I am worn out. Yet, help is needed. Volunteers are needed. (It seems the same people are doing most of the work.) If I step away too often, then some things will not get done for the kingdom. Vicious cycle, huh? I'll try to smell some roses without feeling guilty, but it won't be easy.
Yeah, I know what you mean. But we need to trust God for the people, the timing and the ministries. I also think we could work smarter rather than harder - though working smarter is hard for some used to getting things done by brute force and showing up. Strategic planning, intentional asking, and faithful prayer might be how we should spend more of our time. And then we'll have time to smell the roses, and more. Maybe we;ll have time to even plant them!
I'm going to take a nap now. I wish I had a hammock.
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