Frantic = Happy

So I'm telling a friend, "Dude, you have got to take some time off .... you're working too hard. You have to take care of yourself. You have to tend to your soul." He says, "I know." I'm thinking, "Yeah John ... you know too ... but you're not doing it." It's good advice, even if I don't take it. I've tried, and I'm not giving up, but I'm not doing well. Faithful blog readers will know that I took a personal retreat six weeks or so ago. During that retreat I determined to cull out some things in my life that were taking too much of my time. I did so! I wrote out a weekly schedule and even printed up 52 of them and put them in a binder. Optimistic? Maybe. To me that binder is an ugly accusing ogre looking over my shoulder with a taunting smirk. I haven't opened it up. I pretend it's not there. My last two weeks have been as haphazard and cluttered up as ever. I need to face the fact that I'm no good at caring for my soul. Quiet times? They drive me crazy. Moments when I'm not doing something? I get a shiver just thinking about it. Meditation? Try a 10 second attention span. The current issue of DISCIPLESHIP JOURNAL is all about this crazy hectic frantic life we live. I recommend the articles in this issue. But it's so much easier to read about it, agree with the authors, know that this is something that needs my attention ... it's called discipline ... and I have little of it. Excuses are for wimps, though. The formula for much of my life has been frantic = happy. But what frantic means eventually is that we wear down and wear out. We don't think clearly. We make poor decisions. We become short tempered and physically exhausted. Do you think that God rested on the seventh day because he was tired, or because he was setting into motion a rhythm for living to be followed by his Creation? So when I preached my sermon to my friend, I was speaking to myself. We both knew it ... and we both needed to hear it. We will both be equally challenged to do something about it. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. --Matthew 14:23 (The Message)