At Loose Ends

Going full tilt every inch of our diary is filled with some activity.  We can’t squeeze anything else in.  Then the holidays come.  No alarm clock shatters our sleep.  There’s no hurry to get up and get going. 

We’ve been longing for a bit of ‘down time’, craving rest and relaxation.  Without the demands of a heavy schedule we feel at a loss.  We don’t know what to do with the free time.  The discomfort with wide open spaces of nothing to do – even if only for a couple of days – is sometimes too hard to bear.  So we busy ourselves with being busy.  We fill the time with little jobs that we’ve been meaning to get to for months now.

Energetic types who are always on the go find holidays hard work.  At least holidays come to an end and we can get back into the frenetic routine that feeds our need to be ‘doing something’.  But what happens when we retire?  The numbers of times I’ve heard people say, “I’m busier now in retirement than when I was when I was working.”  We make ourselves busy with taking on part time employment, voluntary work, looking after family, or throwing ourselves into a hobby.  The trouble is when inactivity is enforced.  What happens when illness or age limits what we can do?

There is nothing wrong with a hectic lifestyle.  In Luke 5:12-16 Jesus is at the centre of popular attention and he’s meeting people’s needs at every turn.  Crowds of people are pressing in.  “But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.”  Jesus knew that energy and effectiveness grew out of stillness.

Do you find a place and time to be alone – alone with God?  As this year begins I would invite you to create ‘down time’ – ‘alone time’ with God.  Revd. Dr. Susan Durber writes in The Prayer Handbook of the relationship of evangelism and prayer:  "If Christian communities are not rooted in a real experience of the presence of God, then they have nothing to share as good news. This means that prayer, in a year of evangelism, is not just prayer for the success of evangelical campaigns or prayer for wisdom in 'how to reach people'. Prayer is simply the breath that keeps the Christian body alive, and without it, there is no message to proclaim, no service to be offered and no good news to be shared."

 Prayer:  Jesus, teach us to pray that our praying may be the fountain of our living.  Spirit, give us courage to be alone, patiently waiting for the noise to still into deep communion with the Father.  Amen.