It's Your Time

People are busy.  How do I know this?  Because I am busy and I know I am not the only one.   But you know what being busy has taught me?  How to be stressed, yell at strangers through the safety of my windshield, and not care about anyone but myself.  Harsh, but true.  People who are short on time are stressed.  So why do we do it every day?  Why do people pack their schedules to the top and run frantically from one scheduled meeting to another?  I am not completely sure, but I have a hunch.

We like to be numb.  T.V. is an escape.  Video games are an escape.  Even fictional novels are an escape.  I am not joking when I say that I was driving down 512 yesterday (one of our local busy highways) and someone was swerving.  As I pulled up next to him in the fast lane I see a tablet blocking his speedometer playing a movie.  He was watching a movie while he was driving!  I could not believe it.  The average American watches more than 5 hours of T.V. a day.  Anyone else find that to be a problematic epidemic?  Whether or not you do, it follows suit with our society's current trend: run.  No, I do not mean exercise.  I mean the mental sprint from the stress of their current life.  I am not saying this to judge.  I do it too.  Life is stressful!  Sometimes you need a break.  But so many people decide to never come out of the numbness they are living in and answer the tough questions in life.  What am I doing?  Where am I going?  Can I do better?  Can I be better?  Is this it?  Is this all that life has to offer?  Let me take the time to answer that one for you.  If you have to ask, the answer is no.  I can promise you one thing.  You will never find what you are looking for running and escaping from life.  Life is here for a reason.  To draw you out, to challenge you, to grow you.  Growing is a process.  It doesn't just happen after you reach adulthood, you have to be intentional about it.  When was the last time you were intentional about improvement?  When did you think you were worth more than what you currently are doing?  Cheesy?  Maybe.  But seriously you guys, no one was designed for mediocrity.  So why is everyone settling?  Come on.  You will fail.  You will fall down.  Get back up.  Just do something worth while.  Or take a day, have nothing planned, and don't do a single numbing pass-time.  Go for a walk in the park.  Give your dog an extra hug.  Smile at strangers, or better yet listen to stories from an elderly person.  They have the best stories, you know, and they are just dying to share.  You may even learn something.

So this is my challenge: for a week, try something different.  Don't use busyness as an excuse.  Just do it, because you owe it to yourself.  Mine will be Facebook (my worst time-waster).  I can honestly say this is going to be rough because I am one of those religious notification-checkers.  But I believe in what I am saying, so I will walk the walk.  I encourage you to cut out something too (or add something new in?), not for me, for you.  You deserve to embrace life, if only for a week.

        

Day 5: "She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said... 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?  Tell her to help me!'  'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

-Luke 10:39-42