Ok, this may soundstupid but I just had surgery Monday and I've been looking forward to it for months. Not just because the surgeon came in for the consult a couple months ago, pulled my CT scan up, and said, "I don't usually say this, but that's one messed up nose." I knew that. I've been looking forward to it because I knew it was going to knock me on my butt for a few days. And boy, howdy, has it. Thanks be to God.
I'm a work in progress, like most of us. I'm stubborn. I'm hard headed. I can't sit still. I've been told that I'm ADD, OCD, and probably some other letters I haven't heard of yet. I've worked since the summer I turned 9 years old and my dad told me, "One of these days, boy, you're going to want to drive. You'd better go to work and start saving money for a car." Watching a movie is almost impossible because it requires me to sit down for 2 hours...2 hours, really? But...I'm a work in progress.
Which means...I'm better than I used to be. After I got home from surgery Monday afternoon, I took the pain meds the doctor sent home and hit my recliner. Every four hours, another pain pill like the doctor ordered, and back to the recliner. Tuesday morning, I popped my copy of "The Hobbit" into the DVD player. Three hours later, I popped "The Fellowship of the Rings" in. Three hours later, "The Two Towers..." For ten hours I sat in my recliner and watched hobbits, elves, and dwarves try to save Middle Earth. And you know what, it didn't bother me.
One of my favorite passages in the entire gospel story is found in Mark 6. The disciples have been running all over God knows where, and as Jesus calls them back together they are climbing all over each other trying to tell him how busy they'd been doing all that he had sent them out to do. He seems unbelievably unimpressed. Totally blows them off. Doesn't even seem to acknowledge how busy they'd been and how proud they were of that. Instead, do you remember what he does?
"Come away with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." That's his answer to their busy-ness. Talk about busting some lead pastor bubbles.
2013 was a hell of a year. Thank God and greyhound it's gone. So, as 2014 rolls in, and I'm still pretty much confined to my recliner for a couple more days, I think I'm going to take JC up on that invitation. Not just for this week, but for this year. I love my job. I love to work. I may even slip into the office for just a few minutes today, but I am going to rediscover how to rest and play this year.
Life is just too damned short to stay stressed all of the time. That's not what we were designed for. Jesus knew that, and that's why he did what he did to the disciples. Sure, there's lots of stuff that needs to be done. Sure, there are going to be long days for all of us. There will be long weeks and overtime. There will be doctors visits and phone calls to keep the creditors at bay. Things are going to break and we will want to pull our hair and scream. But...in all of that, I am going to work harder this year at hearing that voice, "Come away with me by yourself and get some rest."
