Priorities
19/08/14 04:59
Yesterday our son and his family had a very early flight from Billings, Montana to Seattle, Washington. He got his crew up and to the airport by 4:30 and their flight departed shortly after 6:00. That got them to their hom in Olympia by the time that people were heading to work. Although he had planned to take the day off, he ended up needing to go into his office to take care of some things while his family readjusted to being at home after a long weekend of visiting family in Montana. As I read his brief text message about the day I couldn’t help but feeling that one of the things that we have passed down from generation to generation in our family is a sense of engagement with our work. My father was definitely like that and I have found the same thing. None of the three generations has been prone to just work by the clock and walk away from work. We have all been people who have had softer boundaries between work and home life. They aren’t rigidly separated, but all are part of our identity. When there is work to be done the thing to do is to get to it.
Reentry to work will be similar for me today. There is a Church Board meeting this evening and finding a place for the meeting will be a challenge with the rummage sale set up. Knowing the things that need to be done, I planned a short trip for today. I have just over 200 miles to drive this morning and then it will back to work. One thing that I did differently on this vacation is that I stayed away from my e-mail. That means that there will be hundreds of messages to sort through.
Achieving the right balance between work and recreation has been a struggle for our people from the very beginning. The commandment about Sabbath is, in part, a response to our tendency to think that we can go without taking time off from work. I know my father wrestled with that issue. Our place by the Boulder River was a bit of a retreat for him. When he went down to the river to fish, he was beyond the reach of the telephone. Of course in today’s world, we don’t go beyond the reach of the telephone very often. We carry phones with us wherever we go.
And my phone can be used to check my e-mail and keep in touch with other messages. But, from time to time, it is good to unplug just a little bit. We are so used to being on call 24/7 that we go around being a bit distracted from the moment because we know that at any time we might be interrupted by a phone call.
Learning to be present in the moment is one of the great gifts of this life. Sometimes one just needs to focus on what is going on where one finds oneself. It is one of the gifts our grandchildren give us. They simply enjoy the moment and invite us to enter into that moment without worrying about the next phone call, the mail piling up on the desk, or the coming meetings and challenges.
Of course it is a balancing act. To just live in the present with no thought or concern for the future can result in all kinds of problems. Our lives need structure and we need to be able to look at the big picture from time to time. Our ability to remember the past and anticipate the future keeps us connected with other people and to accomplish really big projects. Without planning and dedication little can be done.
In our hyper-connected world, the temptation is to be distracted by so many interruptions that one responds to the most recent or most urgent demand on our time. There are plenty of people who become so swept up in the busyness of their lives that they don’t develop the commitment and dedication to accomplish major projects. They simply flit from one thing to another and never develop deep commitments and connections.
What seems to work best for me is to devise blocks of time when I focus my attention in different places. I have just completed a week in which I paid attention to my extended family. I have connected with three of my four nieces on one side of the family and all of my nieces and nephews on the other side. I have visited with cousins and gathered together all of our children and grandchildren. I have celebrated a birthday with my sisters and paid some attention to a piece of family property that needs a little work. This time it was best to simply focus on family for a week.
Now I need to focus on work for a couple of days. There is much to be done, with a wedding tomorrow in the midst of the rummage sale. People will be coming and going from the church with lots of needs and I will have to be ready to listen carefully. Then, later this week, I will be doing a balancing act as we play host to friends from Australia. Our friend is the national director of intercultural ministries for the Uniting Church of Australia, which means that his visit is both personal and church-related. Hosting the visit requires that we not make rigid boundaries between work and personal life. Our conversations about the church and its future will stitch into the evenings and even our times of driving around to show them the Black Hills.
We are complex beings and we lead complex lives. The ability to establish priorities is critical. The first priority of our people is our relationship with God. When that one is straight the other things fall into place. And when we forget, we fall into idolatry - making some false object into a god.
May God grant us the grace to remember our priorities and put God first in every decision.
Reentry to work will be similar for me today. There is a Church Board meeting this evening and finding a place for the meeting will be a challenge with the rummage sale set up. Knowing the things that need to be done, I planned a short trip for today. I have just over 200 miles to drive this morning and then it will back to work. One thing that I did differently on this vacation is that I stayed away from my e-mail. That means that there will be hundreds of messages to sort through.
Achieving the right balance between work and recreation has been a struggle for our people from the very beginning. The commandment about Sabbath is, in part, a response to our tendency to think that we can go without taking time off from work. I know my father wrestled with that issue. Our place by the Boulder River was a bit of a retreat for him. When he went down to the river to fish, he was beyond the reach of the telephone. Of course in today’s world, we don’t go beyond the reach of the telephone very often. We carry phones with us wherever we go.
And my phone can be used to check my e-mail and keep in touch with other messages. But, from time to time, it is good to unplug just a little bit. We are so used to being on call 24/7 that we go around being a bit distracted from the moment because we know that at any time we might be interrupted by a phone call.
Learning to be present in the moment is one of the great gifts of this life. Sometimes one just needs to focus on what is going on where one finds oneself. It is one of the gifts our grandchildren give us. They simply enjoy the moment and invite us to enter into that moment without worrying about the next phone call, the mail piling up on the desk, or the coming meetings and challenges.
Of course it is a balancing act. To just live in the present with no thought or concern for the future can result in all kinds of problems. Our lives need structure and we need to be able to look at the big picture from time to time. Our ability to remember the past and anticipate the future keeps us connected with other people and to accomplish really big projects. Without planning and dedication little can be done.
In our hyper-connected world, the temptation is to be distracted by so many interruptions that one responds to the most recent or most urgent demand on our time. There are plenty of people who become so swept up in the busyness of their lives that they don’t develop the commitment and dedication to accomplish major projects. They simply flit from one thing to another and never develop deep commitments and connections.
What seems to work best for me is to devise blocks of time when I focus my attention in different places. I have just completed a week in which I paid attention to my extended family. I have connected with three of my four nieces on one side of the family and all of my nieces and nephews on the other side. I have visited with cousins and gathered together all of our children and grandchildren. I have celebrated a birthday with my sisters and paid some attention to a piece of family property that needs a little work. This time it was best to simply focus on family for a week.
Now I need to focus on work for a couple of days. There is much to be done, with a wedding tomorrow in the midst of the rummage sale. People will be coming and going from the church with lots of needs and I will have to be ready to listen carefully. Then, later this week, I will be doing a balancing act as we play host to friends from Australia. Our friend is the national director of intercultural ministries for the Uniting Church of Australia, which means that his visit is both personal and church-related. Hosting the visit requires that we not make rigid boundaries between work and personal life. Our conversations about the church and its future will stitch into the evenings and even our times of driving around to show them the Black Hills.
We are complex beings and we lead complex lives. The ability to establish priorities is critical. The first priority of our people is our relationship with God. When that one is straight the other things fall into place. And when we forget, we fall into idolatry - making some false object into a god.
May God grant us the grace to remember our priorities and put God first in every decision.