The Rhythm of Life

It happened in one of my most hated places—big box stores. 

After fumbling my way through a conversation with someone in customer service, I completed my small, but highly necessary purchase.

Then came the wait.  A long wait.  Boredom set in.  Wandering the isles of the store increased with my rise of restlessness. 

I know of few things that trigger grumpiness more than having to wait for someone to select weather than want 1-inch heels or 3-inch heels.  In fuchsia or teal?  With poka-dots or Barbie print?  To take 1 hour or to take 2 hours?

It irritates me for a number of reasons.  But one of them was quite revealing to me—and I hope you as well.

My frustration with a lack of doing overcame me.

I came across an ocean to get here.  The last thing I want to do is wait for someone to choose weather glitter on high heels is hot fashion right now.  The last thing I want to do was stop being productive; stop being effective, stop talking. 

But I had no other choice.  I was bound to my shopping captors for a way out.  I nearly ran outside and danced in the rain.  Then I asked a question that I don’t ask enough, “How age appropriate would that be?”  So I resisted the urge.  I sat down.

I sat and thought.  I sat and read.  On a bench between the Puma shoes and the Nevada jeans.

I want to do stuff.  Be apart of a club.  Join a program.  Plan an event.  Feed a meal to the poor.  Hear the life of a Muslim.  Be taught about the socio-economic dynamics of Asia’s economic rise.  Yah, I’m that nerdy.  

I want to wake up go none-stop all day and then do it all over again the next—that has not been the case here.  Although it can be tiring, it is satisfy also to go non-stop.  I feel good to be apart of so much. I can tell someone else about all the things I do.  It also feels like I am living God’s call in Micah 6:8 “to act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

When life is like this, the last thing you can call me is apathetic.

Doing justice.  Doing all the wonderful things that you can do at King’s cannot be sustained by a day-after-day pursuit of endless action.

Doing justice.  Doing ministry.  Loving others starts with, is sustained by and ends with rest—Sabbath keeping.  The book, The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton, has helped me see this the clearest.   I opened this book in the middle of the store that afternoon. 

Doing Sabbath means that life is centered back to God.  Our pursuits during the week are set aside to renew the freeing reality that our lives, our activities, this world does not belong to us, but to God.  Doing justice is God’s work, we are simply invited to join what God is already doing. 

Here in Indonesia, the slow pace to life and the lack of immediate activities for me to fill my schedule can irritate me.  And it does.  I think, “I want tell someone that I did many things today, then if I didn’t to much and then this day was not worth that much.”  But, that is the point.  Keeping Sabbath means not doing anything except remembering and practicing trust in God who is God over all.  Keeping Sabbath can mean doing it on Sunday or another day, or making it something that is intertwined throughout your week. Israel had a year of Sabbath—maybe this year will that for me.

I feel unsettled right now.  Yesterday, I had a day full of activities that I could report to you about. But, I wasn’t even able to talk with my host family yesterday.  That led to a healthy conversation on my priorities. I like doing more than resting.

The afternoon among those racks of shirts and piles of shoes, I learned something about my appetite for doing.  I also learned something my appetite for being in the Lord’s presence and resting.  I got a wake-up call.  I needed it.  Do you?