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September 12th.
2007
CHOOSE THE BETTER PART
6:00 AM - Wake up
6:30 AM – Make Coffee and Check emails
6:45 AM – Prepare breakfast for kids
7:00 AM – Wake Kids up
7:30 AM – Drive Kids to School
8:00 AM – Work
Noon – Run to cleaners and other
errands
5:00 PM - Pick up Kids from After School Program- go through drive thru
for dinner on the way to piano lesson and basketball practice and then
run to grocery store and a quick work out
7:30PM - Pickup kids and head for
home
8:00PM - Start kids on homework and
check email / pay bills
9:00 PM - Kids shower and then to
bed
9:30 PM – Make lunches and iron
clothes for next day
10:00 PM – Off to bed
As she relayed her schedule of the day to me with great exuberance she
also made it clear to me that this was not even her busiest day of the
week.
We live in times where our lives are a race from the beginning of the
day to the end. With an almost over-mindfulness of the call to live a
balanced life we attempt to jam as much into our days as possible. In
the end, we loose the essence of the balance and each and everything we
“do” is on some level just another task. Home and parenting
responsibilities – check, went to work- check, exercised –check, spent
time with family today – check, said my prayers – check.
In time, when all that makes up our life is a task, life begins feeling
less than fulfilling at best and at worst we feel a deep sense of
emptiness. Reacting to this feeling we begin to “prioritize” and
“downsize.” If this is the direction we are moving what do we use to
determine what is “most important” or “most expendable”? Since all are
“tasks”, do all carry the same weight?
But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and
asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the
work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” “Martha, Martha you are
worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.
Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
God did not create us to “complete tasks.” God created us to be in
relationship: relationship with our Lord, with each other and with
ourselves. When relationship with any of these becomes just another
task, and as such at risk to be prioritized and potentially downsized,
we clearly have busied ourselves into not being the people God created
and calls us to be.
Blessings,
The Rev. Brian N. Prior, Rector
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