I don’t know if it’s uniquely American, but I would be interested in knowing how many conversations between friends and acquaintances in the United States begin with the question, “How are you doing?” or some variation on that rather general question, and the response then includes some reference to – how busy we are. It seems that our society’s conversational script requires us to include some indication that we are very busy people. We wear our busy-ness as a kind of badge of honor to prove that we are indeed industrious and hard working people.
I remember hearing, as a school aged child, the prediction that by the turn of the century, by the year 2000, the average worker would be putting in, maybe, 30 hours a week, vacation time would be 6 weeks on the average, and leisure time activities would be a major part of everyone’s lifestyle. We’ve never gotten there. Instead what I hear today is that people are working longer hours, for less pay, with fewer benefits, and are busier than ever, and aren’t enjoying it. Even when we’re on vacation, we fill our time with lots of activity and busy-ness. Americans see it as part of their unalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”, and “pursuit” implies yet another task we are supposed to embrace.
“Pursuing Happiness” was the title of an interesting episode of the NPR radio show “On Being” that featured a conversation on happiness between the Dali Lama, and a Christian, Jewish and Muslim clergy representative. Many interesting points were shared. One story I appreciated was told by the Jewish Rabbi to illustrate that often, happiness comes, not when we are pursuing it, but comes to us when we least expect it. Here’s the story he told.
An 18th century rabbi was watching people rushing to and fro across the town square, and wondered why they were all running so frenetically. He stopped one person and asked, “Why are you running?”
The man said, ‘I running to make a living.’”
The rabbi paused a moment and then asked him, “How come you’re so sure that the living is in front of you and you have to run to catch it. Maybe it’s behind you, and you need to stop and let it catch up to you.”
“When, in contemporary culture do we stop and let our blessings catch up with us?” That is called, the Sabbath. Sabbath is when we celebrate the things that are important, but not urgent. Sometimes we don’t need to pursue happiness, we just need to pause, and let happiness catch up with us.
I have no doubt that many of you will be very, very busy throughout 2012. Sunday is no longer honored by our society as a day of “Sabbath” rest. It’s very hard to slow down long enough to let the amazing blessings that we all enjoy catch up with us and or busy schedule, allowing us to stop and give thanks for the lives we share. But that is what we do on Sunday morning. A lot of effort goes into creating a worship life at Wooddale that allows you to stop pursuing life and let the blessings of God catch up with you. I have no doubt that you can always find other things to fill your time on Sunday morning, things that may even bring a benefit to your life. But it is so important to stop, and let God’s amazing grace catch us.
Peace,
Pastor Tim
