Slow Down

Is your life “Tour de France” , “Fast and the Furious” , or “The Polar Express”?

Errands never end. Work is recurring and not just a one day a week thing, and driving is essential like air. You juggle between work and house chores. Twenty four hours is never enough. Life is a rat race they say. You are stressed out, exhausted, burnt out, drained. You open your eyes, blink then suddenly you’re in bed again.

I bet you don’t even know the word “relax” anymore. Go ahead and let out a silent scream, pull your hair even. I heard it’s therapeutic.

My plate is always full. My to do list never ends. I always try to do everything at once I’m all over the place. I started writing this around 9 this morning and I found myself doing laundry.I ran out of soap and went for a quick run to the store but ended up doing big time grocery shopping.

As I was putting all the stuff away, I saw the mailman and decided to get the mail. I ended up watering the lawn and raking leaves. Running around like a mad man, I marinated the meat and ended up changing the table-cloth to red. Yes, I want red this time. And because the table-cloth is red and new, I decided to re-arrange the kitchen. I opened the kitchen blinds and I thought I was transported to a different warp zone, because I found myself digging and re-planting geranium around the plum tree. Whoa!

Took a shower, Bee Gees on the turntable (yes, you read it right, turn table), as soon as I sat down to enjoy the music..buzzzzz… clothes are dry. They lay in bed as I type. Will start cooking shortly.

It’s already 6:11 pm.

Last Sunday at church, at the altar call I came forward and approached an elder couple for a prayer. I told them what areas I needed prayer in and as soon as we said amen, the elderly said to me ” I have a message from you from the Holy Spirit, He wants to tell you to slow down.”

We all know this and yet we always go ahead and do what we think is best. We are in a hurry all the time, we want results right away. We run around like crazy trying to accomplish so much. God is chasing us and calling out “slow down my child, slow down”. Sometimes too though, because we are such race rats, we fail to hear God’s voice. Like Samuel, if we fine tune our spiritual ears and let the Holy Spirit catch up with us, we don’t only allow ourselves to inhale but allow God to speak to us and see His will clearly.

God may seem like He is taking his time, and why not? His timing is perfect all the time! He is the Captain of the ship and his pace is always steady.

Dear Jesus, forgive us for getting ahead of ourselves and you. Teach us how to slow down and be sensitive to your calling. Like Samuel, we want to be able to say “Speak, for your servant is listening.” Rein our hearts and help us to focus on You and You alone.