The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer. In the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Supper. (Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1895.)
I believe there is no line between the secular and sacred because God is forever made manifest right in our ordinary lives—there isn’t one room where God dwells and another room where our families or friends lives. Our whole lives tell the whole truth.
God isn’t restricted to just worship-entertainment or study or silence, sermons or scripture or simplicity. God is also in our back yards and playgrounds, our classrooms and kitchens, our work sites and hospitals. God is worshipped in our bedside chats and our early morning coffee, in our text messages to check in and our dropped off flowers to a lonely pal. God is also glorified in protests and policy making, in love making and teaching a kid to tie their shoes. It’s worthy work to contend for a whole incarnate life. (Retrieved from: Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes sarahbessey@substack.com The Pursuit of God, August 30, 2022)
Time is on our side. (The Jonas Brothers)
This week I had a meeting with a Very Wise Colleague, who I lamented to that I had no idea what work/life balance was. I told her that the lines were blurry between my work and my ‘life’ – so that I may leave the church mid-day to take my kid for lunch, but also would be sending and responding to emails on my days off, and reading to prep for my sermon or an upcoming Board Meeting at midnight. She asked me if I felt overworked. I said ‘no’. I said that sometimes I’m disappointed that I can’t participate in things like choir because the rhythm of my days doesn’t usually allow me to do regular rehearsals, but that I wouldn’t change things for a moment because of the freedom I have to be fully myself in all aspects of my life. My Very Wise Colleague called me a “workhorse”. I was momentarily offended. My image of a workhorse is of a poor mistreated animal that is worked until its beaten to death. That’s not me at all.
She must’ve seen the eye-roll, so she quickly elaborated. “Workhorses” she said, “are born to do a job. Their life is all about doing their job. There is no identity away from working”.
So, yes, I guess I am a workhorse. But I am God’s workhorse, not Bethel’s workhorse. So while I love doing all things ministry, that isn’t all of my work. So, of course, this has all gotten me wondering – especially in light of my sermon on “Quiet Quitting” that I preached on Sunday.
What has happened that we have compartmentalized our lives so much that time has to fit into these discrete 8 hour slots in the day; 8 hours for sleeping, 8 hours for working and 8 hours for our family, friends and recreation? And where do we slot our lives of faith in? Usually God fits in whatever time we squeeze out in the family/friends/recreation (oh and housekeeping and errand running and and and…..)time slot. Often there’s time for only a quick 5 minutes of prayer as you dash out the door and for an hour at 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning.
So, to quote Dr. Phil: “How’s that working for you?”
Because, really, it hasn’t worked for me.
Many of you who are or were working parents can remember the agony of having to make the choice of what to do about childcare when one of the kids came down with the stomach flu and they needed to encroach in the 8 hours of ‘work time’. I’m sure all of you have been confronted with the need to put in extra hours of work time in order to finish a project, or just simply show your dedication, and your work time encroached on your family time as you skipped out on supper and a child’s ball game. Or maybe, you remember pulling an ‘all-nighter’ as a student and encroaching on your rest time so that you can adequately prepare for an exam.
We’ve turned our lives into this delicate juggling act where we are working to keep balls with artificial time barriers in the air.
And what happens to God in the whole thing? Well – if we shuffle God into a single one of our time slots then God gets lost. If God gets shuffled to the 8 hours of family/friends/recreation then where’s the time for housekeeping and errand running? If God gets shuffled to the 8 hours of work then how on earth are you going to meet that next deadline or get that next report(sermon) written? And if God gets shuffled to the 8 hours of sleep, how are you going to get enough shut-eye in so that you can get up in the morning for the next 8 hours?
Somehow we’ve forgotten that God transcends time. God even transcends place. And I kinda think that maybe we weren’t created to have a life so obviously compartmentalized. That maybe we’re created, not to multi-task, but maybe to be integrated? To recognize, anyway, that God is included in our work, is included in our families and friends, and maybe even is including in the daily-ness of chores, of sleeping and the little details of things that we have to do in any given day. And that all we need to do – well – is to see God there.
Because God has been there all along. We created the compartments, not God. We created these divisions, not God. We created these barriers, not God.
We were made, I think, to be ‘faithful workhorses’. With faithfulness integrated into all that we do.
So today, my Bethel friends, when you’re watching the edges of your time slots encroach each other, then take a moment and remind yourself that God is in all parts of your life. The work part, the home/family/friends/recreation part and even the sleeping part. God is even in the daily minutia of your life and the expansive grandeur of your life. Because God is. And so are you.
Blessings today and Remember you are Loved.
~Rev. Lynne
