ADDED CHAIRS
«Surely every man walks about like a shadow; surely they busy themselves in vain; he heaps up riches, and does not know who will gather them”. (Psalm 39:6).
“I can’t right now.» «I’m tired.» «l have too much to do!» How many times this week did say something similar? Although we continually complain about the frenzied pace we keep, very rarely do we take the necessary steps to change. Why? Because, although living at full speed tires us, it also makes us feel important and irreplaceable. In addition, the faster we go, the less we feel. Being very busy is a kind of anesthesia that numbs grief and loneliness. In fact, we’re so used to living like this that doing nothing makes us nervous. It fills us with guilt. We think we need longer days, forty eight-hour days. But they wouldn’t be enough for us either: we would fill every space of quiet with activities. We don’t need any more time. We need more peace.
We hate to admit that we choose to be busy (more than think we are victims of circumstances. A while ago I read a story about two pastors-one young and one retired—who were talking about a church. The young pastor commented that God had blessed his ministry so much that the church had grown exponentially. Now, he was very busy attending to the endless needs of the members. The retired pastor listened patiently, noting that the younger pastors’ words implied that he had no responsibility for the growth of the church, nor for the excessive list of responsibilities he had. So he wisely said to him: «It wasn’t just God; you kept adding chairs.» We like to think we have no control, but we kept adding chairs. When our day is full, we accept another responsibility, believing that being busy makes us important.
«It’s not hard to decide what you want your life to be about,» Shauna Niequist wrote in Bittersweet. «What’s hard is figuring out what you’re willing to give up in order to do the things you really care about.» What’s hard is choosing which chairs we’re going to remove to have emotional space. The real challenge is accepting our limits and our finitude as a blessing and not as a punishment.
Dear Lord, today I renounce the idea that being busy means being important.
Teach me to slow down to receive Your peace. I want to make room for silence.
I want to prioritize my emotional health and that of my family.
Please show me what things shouldn’t be on my schedule today and give me the courage to take them away. Thank you for Your constant help! Amen.
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Take From: Devotional Thoughts for Women 2022
«NO FEARS»
BY: VANEZA PISSUTO
Collaborators: Alexandra Pérez & Angelica Cuate.