Dear reader,
I am writing this, <checks calendar> roughly 36 hours before Christmas. The rush of travel plans, whether you are doing the travelling or the driving to the airport to pick up those you’re hosting and/or getting the guest bedroom readied; the multiple runs to the grocery store for another item you’re fresh out; the frenzied wrapping, baking, cleaning to make room for more wrapping or baking or cleaning. Yes, ’tis the season for losing one’s mind a tad bit!
In this holy moment of crazed activity, with Christmas a few hours away, and a few days before a new year, we sit in the tension of time being a scarce resource.
I’ve been a different kind of busy, but busy nonetheless. The learning curve in my new job is steep and keeps me focused to the point I have to fight for the time to keep certain habits. Lunch has been a casualty twice this week, for example.
To be clear, the fight is with myself. I work remotely and for the most part, have enough flexibility to set my hours. But old habits–good or bad– die hard. Grateful for the good ones I’m now clinging to and without which my day feels incomplete. As for the bad ones, workaholism is a real beast. I’m glad I'm familiar with its fangs and its allure.
The truth is, life sometimes is busy and hurried. I don’t have the same margin during midterms as I do when I’m out of school. Nor is my daily routine the same when I’m going through the onboarding process in a new job, as when my calendar is clear of work responsibilities.
But I have the same need to refuel.
I find with habits, the more I feed good ones, the harder it is for the bad ones to grow. And vice versa.
This week reading through my Bible I came across a statement that landed deeply in my soul and reset my frazzled emotions by the hurry.
God’s kingdom is described as “unshakable” by the author of Hebrews. The word connotes all the things the world, the seasonality of Christmas, and life in the West—particularly in North American culture, are not.
Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.
Hebrews 12:28 (NLT)
Mmm..this forces me to declutter my own expectations. I want to remain intentional with my time and steward it so that I have some for what matters, and what I know will sustain me.
Things that are—to quote the Lazy Genius—saving my life, are things I find myself fighting to keep. They’ve earned their space on my calendar because they anchor me when life gets stormy.
We are fast-paced, deadline-driven, wanting hurried efficiency and fast productivity. I get it.
But I recall the book of Ecclesiastes wisely points out there is a time for everything. I slipped my time for lunch twice and paid for it later. I was famished and distracted. Poor food choices were made easy by the urgency of hunger. It’s a silly example but also a really good illustration.
God is not rushed. His kingdom is not shaken by the frenzy.
The author of Hebrews also says we receive this unshakable kingdom. Words matter. The language evokes a gift whose value is solid, and lasting. We don’t earn it. We don’t fight in order to get in. That was Someone else’s fight, and he did it on a roman cross.
But, we do battle to practice and recall where we belong. Jesus makes it possible for me, a human person, limited by design, to be free in Him. And that freedom means I can entrust to him what my limitations can’t cover.
So I carve the time for simple habits that hold me and preserve me.
Among those things that are saving my life are meeting with God before the madness of the day takes over, eating a good breakfast most days, and running three times a week.
The first means getting time with God by reading the Bible and praying. How much time and how that looks shifts depending on the season. These days I wake up early, put on my earbuds, program the Dwell app on my phone to read the passage corresponding to the text in my chronological Bible and listen while I make breakfast. I’ve heard the passage a few times over by the time I'm done. I sit with my Bible and underline the parts that struck me. Then I pray. I eat what I made. Wrap Gus’s to keep it warm since he’s on break and sleeping in. I start my day.
I’ve had seasons where I could sit for two hours doing a deep dive. I’ve also had seasons when I met with my accountability group at 8 am at a coffee shop. I’m NOT a morning person. I’d listen to Scripture on my earphones in the subway on my way to meet them. And sometimes, read my Bible on the subway.
There have been seasons, like finals two semesters ago, when breakfast was whatever I could stomach with all the stress, and all I could do was read a short devotional on the names of Jesus. It was SO life-giving. My time with God looked different, but the habit of showing up kept me alive.
Running means going for a 30-minute jog Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If I’m tired or busier than I thought I’d be, it might be a 20-minute run. Occasionally, I will run two days instead of three if I realize my body is so tired that pushing myself will bring my defences down, making me susceptible to catching a cold. And running also looks like rest. If I don’t respect my body’s limited energy and let it rest, I can’t stay physically active. It’s a virtuous circle that keeps me accountable and dependent on God.
I work hard to practice these habits, pivoting when I need to keep them. Because they keep me whole, sane, and functional, they are life preservers for me.
The fight with myself is about leaning on what is life-giving, even when life feels compressed. That is when I need them most.
In Jesus, we belong to a kingdom that is different from this world. But we are called to live here for now. In that holy dichotomy;
What is shaking you?
And how does that meet with an unshakable kingdom?
Wisdom isn’t hurried. Neither is God.
But modern life tends to be. And we can become quickly hurried.
I pray for you and me:
To trust in His hands that which the hours of our day can’t finish. To revisit Truth often and practice it with our minds and calendars—the habits we foster or need to starve. And to enter His rest with faith that when we feel shaken, we have received an unshakable kingdom to dwell in, to belong with God, in Jesus.
While our calendars are packed with activities that need our attention, truth has no deadline. Its Author has no beginning and no end.
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!
Warmly,
Paola
I love hearing about the habits and practices that are helping you lean in to God's unshakeable kingdom! And what a gift it is to know that the way we show up for God can look different in different seasons. Your writing always makes me think, so I'm reflecting on what life-saving habits and spiritual practices I have in place now and which ones I might want in the new year! Merry Christmas!