Jan 3, 2013

Life Lessons from a Broken Foot


My instructive left foot. 4 more weeks to go.
   A broken foot can teach you a lot and the New Year can be a good time for it to happen. Here's why:
   It's given me time to SIT STILL. This alone is a change I could learn to make a habit. While I'm being forced to SIT STILL, I have spent time on things that I've been putting off, like this blog for instance. Can't blog easily if you're always on the move. Or reading my Bible. Editing my thousands of pictures. Playing a board game with my family. These things require me to SIT STILL. 
   Another thing I'm discovering is that it forces me to change my priorities. Before the break, I would always find something else that needed to be done before I would allow myself to SIT STILL. This usually meant I would go all day without sitting still. How badly does the house need cleaning? Well, if I have to SIT STILL, then I'll have to clean less. And behold, the guilt of a floor needing to be vacuumed vanishes. So I have more time for that stuff I was talking about before. Stuff that requires me to SIT STILL.
   I'm also forced to let Mei fend for herself. This is a good thing for someone who has some anxieties. (Hers that is, but maybe a touch of mine too?) And not only does she have to do for herself, she has to do for ME. Some practice in servanthood which I couldn't have taught as well if I hadn't been doing what? That's right.
    A recent sermon quoted Tim Kreider about busyness that hit me between the eyes. (Father R was making um-humming noises next to me.) 
"Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly   or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day." from the NYTimes article online
   Ouch! Is that my motivation for being busy? Maybe I need to think a about that. It takes time to think, reflect, ponder...in other words to engage the brain. Which I can do if I SIT STILL. 

Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God."
   


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