Success
Busyness has become a sign of success. You are applauded for the more things you have to do and the less time you have to spend with people. The more unavailable you are, the more successful people assume you must be. This is true in the church as well.
But people are afraid to stop and listen to the silence for fear of what they will find.
I was recently reading one of Henri Nouwens thoughts on busyness and he said this:
Action can help to claim and celebrate our true self. But here again we need discipline, because the world in which we live says do this, do that, go here, go there. Busyness has become a sign of importance. Having much to do and many places to go and countless people to meet gives us status or even fame. However, being busy can lead us away from our true vocation and prevent us from drinking our cup…drinking our cup involves carefully choosing those actions that lead us closer to the complete emptying of it so that at the end of our lives we can say with Jesus “It is fulfilled”. Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can’t praise and glorify God. What God calls us to do we can do and do well. When we listen in silence to God’s voice and speak with our friends in trust, we will know what we are called to do and we will do it with a grateful heart.”
When one gives up working-and I mean actual physical projects-and sits in silence, the true inner creatures of the deep emerge and one realizes just how wretched and inadequate they are. To acknowledge this, then allow and accept that there is a love covers it, is the eye of the needle the camel is trying to get through. Once on the other side of the doorway however, it is impossible to return the other direction. The old lies and struggles and thought patterns are just a distant memory and there’s nothing that can be brought to him(or her) in thought or deed that can sway or distract from this infinite, perfect love. The person with this revelation is untouchable by earthly or spiritual darkness. He becomes part of the eternal and has made himself a hidden stairway, allowing heaven to invade earth whenever the Spirit sees fit. He walks and Jesus walked and sees as He saw. One that attains this virtue is able to commune with the Father and Spirit as Jesus did-simple and yielded. Such a person can truly move mountains or instantly change a situation with simply a word.
Successful? I think so.
But people are afraid to stop and listen to the silence for fear of what they will find.
I was recently reading one of Henri Nouwens thoughts on busyness and he said this:
Action can help to claim and celebrate our true self. But here again we need discipline, because the world in which we live says do this, do that, go here, go there. Busyness has become a sign of importance. Having much to do and many places to go and countless people to meet gives us status or even fame. However, being busy can lead us away from our true vocation and prevent us from drinking our cup…drinking our cup involves carefully choosing those actions that lead us closer to the complete emptying of it so that at the end of our lives we can say with Jesus “It is fulfilled”. Actions that lead to overwork, exhaustion, and burnout can’t praise and glorify God. What God calls us to do we can do and do well. When we listen in silence to God’s voice and speak with our friends in trust, we will know what we are called to do and we will do it with a grateful heart.”
When one gives up working-and I mean actual physical projects-and sits in silence, the true inner creatures of the deep emerge and one realizes just how wretched and inadequate they are. To acknowledge this, then allow and accept that there is a love covers it, is the eye of the needle the camel is trying to get through. Once on the other side of the doorway however, it is impossible to return the other direction. The old lies and struggles and thought patterns are just a distant memory and there’s nothing that can be brought to him(or her) in thought or deed that can sway or distract from this infinite, perfect love. The person with this revelation is untouchable by earthly or spiritual darkness. He becomes part of the eternal and has made himself a hidden stairway, allowing heaven to invade earth whenever the Spirit sees fit. He walks and Jesus walked and sees as He saw. One that attains this virtue is able to commune with the Father and Spirit as Jesus did-simple and yielded. Such a person can truly move mountains or instantly change a situation with simply a word.
Successful? I think so.
posted by John | 11:35 AM
1 Comments:
BUSY - Being Under Satan's Yolk
The more we take on, the further from God we become, the further from who God made us to be we become.
When we stop, when we pause, we can reflect on where we are, who we are and what we are doing with this gift of life.
Pausing is not easy, it is learned. The more I pause, the more ingrained it becomes in me, the more apt I am to do it. It is learned and some days are easier to stop.
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