I have been taking more time lately to return to one of my long time favorite activities. I like to find a comfortable place to sit, a good cup of coffee and a view of people. When I was a senior in high school we had to complete a form of an ethnography. Essentially we would sit in the same place at various times of day and watch what people did. A log of all the activity was created. After several days of watching and recording observations, we were to make some conclusions about the setting we have studied. Recently I have been doing some studying and observing, and now have conclusions.
The most outstanding feature I have found is the pace at which people exist. From the way people walk down the street, to the way in which they eat their lunch. It can be seen in the conversations people have and their willingness, or lack there of, to stand in line. It seems life is continuing to speed up and we as humans in North America, are stuck in a life of ridiculous pace. I understand not every person and people group suffers from this, still by and large I am finding an increasing number of people who are.
As I watch the pace of life we are living I cannot help wonder what the impact is on our relationship with God. There are times when God moves us at a high rate of speed, by in large however, we run faster than God. People suffer disjointed and disconnected lives and the common solutions is to do more at a higher rate of speed. From where I sit I cannot see that as a solutions that is working. At the end of the hectic week we find ourselves exhausted, frustrated and distant from God, only to find the week ahead is more of the same.
This ridiculous pace gets lived as a search for importance, meaning and significance. In the end we are just lost. I know in my life and in the lives of those around me, it is time to slow down rather than speed up. The time has come to eliminate from my life the things which are not what God would have me do. This will mean saying good bye to good things, godly things, in order to focus all of my energy and effort on what God is calling me to. Perhaps it is time for you to do the same.
1 comment:
Aaron, you got me on this one! When life gets busy we seem to run faster and adjust to that pace until life gets busier and busier and we keep adding and forgot to let go of the things on the must do list. My time with God then gets rushed too. God could answer the prayers faster, could you answer me faster? What I need to do is sit with God.
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