AtomBack in the Saddle
Friends in Christ,
It’s good to be “back in the saddle” again after taking some time off in July.
While taking this time off…I came across an article by Robert Samuelson in the July 23rd issue of Newsweek magazine with the title “The Sad Fate of the Comma”.
Samuelson writes:
I have always like commas, but I seem to be in a shrinking minority. The comma is in retreat, though it is not yet extinct. In text messages and e-mails, commas appear infrequently, and then often by accident… …If all this involved only grammar, I might let it lie, But the comma’s sad fate is, I think, a metaphor for something larger: how we deal with the frantic, can’t wait a minute nature of modern life. The comma is, after all, a small sign that flashes PAUSE. It tells the reader to slow down, think a bit, and then move on. We don’t have time for that. No pauses allowed. In this sense, the comma’s fading popularity is also social commentary. The comma is a small victim of our hustle-bustle.
Let’s skip over to an article in the July 2007 issue of The Lutheran magazine,
In U.S. culture we are driven to a frenzy by the speed of our lives. The desert Christians call us to stop, to step aside, to “seek the One who made the Pleiades and Orion.” In this stopping, stepping aside and entering silence and stillness, we allow God to return as the center of our vision and life.
As long as we are hurried and harried it’s so very easy for our egos and control agendas to be the dominant center of our planning, decision-making and moral choices. Our dominant culture is shaped by speed, by work, by sheer busyness.
Think about it this way…I sense that, for most followers of Jesus, the speed of our lives has reduced Bible reading and prayer time with God to next to nothing. For many followers of Jesus, the speed of our lives has reduced family time to short connections with just enough time to say “hi” and “good-bye” to one another. AND…those who are retired in our midst haven’t been beacons of hope as they tell me that life after retirement doesn’t slow down, but rather, it gets faster and busier than ever before.
So, we ask, how do we overcome the trappings of our culture? How do we step aside and enter silence and stillness? How can we best live out our faith in a 24/7 culture of PCs, emails, and cell phones?
How we do this is, in my estimation, one of the biggest challenges to God’s people in America today.
As for me, I look for your ideas because I’m as caught up in the frantic speed of life as you are, and, I feel the effects of living at this speed daily!!
Yet, as I think about it…maybe it’s not that difficult…maybe…it’s a matter of just starting!!
Just start by taking three 5 minute pauses each day for prayer and Bible reading.
Just start by saying NO to one evening commitment each week.
Just start by using some of that vacation time you’ll never ever use...for family and for others.
Just start by remembering that the Third Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy” is given for our benefit…in part to give us a pause in life…a pause we so desperately need!!
See you in worship,
Pastor Dave
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