My life, probably like many of yours over the month of December, has been a blur of hurry:
- I wake up and hurry to shower and eat breakfast, so I can hurry up and get my girls ready, so we can hurry out of the house to get to the babysitters and work on time.
- I get to school and hurry to get my plans ready for class so that I can hurry up and focus on checking the massive load of papers that need checked before the end of the semester.
- I hurry out of my room at lunch because I know I have a 5 minute walk to and from the cafeteria, giving me 20 minutes total to eat lunch and probably start another pot of coffee for the afternoon.
- I hurry out of my room at the end of the day so that I can get to practice on time, which is a rush now that our school day is longer.
- I hurry home after practice so that I can hopefully see my girls before I go to bed. I often hurry through my supper with the knowledge that both of them need something immediately.
- At night I try to hurry up and get to sleep (which never works), because I know I'm behind on sleep. This is especially true on nights with away games, when I don't get to bed until about 1, desperate to get a couple of hours of sleep before I must wake up and rush to professional development.
- On weekends I rush to get as much done productively as possible once my girls begin napping, because I know it's the only real chance I'll get.
At church at least, I can't hurry. That's often hard because there are times when I sit there and think about everything that needs to get done. Then I rush home to get started on it all.
This morning in church I got all this hurry thrown right back in my face. 'Tis the season for Christmas carols, and one of the songs we sang this morning was "What Child is This?" One refrain that gets repeated in the song is this: "Haste, haste to bring Him laud." That one got me. My entire month has been full of haste, as chronicled above. But I have not been full of haste to bring Christ laud (praise or glory).
Of all activities, events, or tasks worthy of haste, there is none that matches this one. It is this haste that will bring the most satisfaction in a life too hurried to be satisfied with anything.
Another great example of how traditional hymns just "mean" more than modern worship songs... a great one to pause and think through.
ReplyDeleteGreat example, Shannon! It must have been a good Sunday for messages in church. Our pastor did a children's message that will make me stop and think. While we are getting ready for Christmas, shopping, wrapping gifts, cooking, cleaning, going to parties, traveling, etc., just stop and ask yourself this question once an hour, "Whose birthday is it any way?" It keeps it all in perspective.
ReplyDeleteWell said, my friend. I just read another piece this morning that pointed out all the "hurry" in the Christmas story - the angels "suddenly" appeared, and the shepherds "hurried" to Bethlehem. And there was Mary, the one person who didn't hurry through it all, but thought, pondered, and stored things in her heart. I wonder what she knew, and what she stored in her heart, and how I can be more like her.
ReplyDeleteI can most certainly identify with you, my dear son-in-law. . . .As I pushed another batch of snow this early afternoon, I wondered just how I took care of 400 head of hogs and finished cattle through the years BEFORE and AFTER work everyday, and still managed to go to ball games, concerts, and church activities all the time. Sometimes I think some of it is all in how you look at the situation--granted you are very busy, but try not to hurry through it all. Happiness is found along the way, not at the end of the road. Dad
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