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“My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

—Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

As long as the world keeps spinning, I’m going to get dizzy . . . not a good thing because I’ve always had motion sickness. At times I feel I’m on the tea cup ride in Fantasyland with the Mad Hatter at the wheel. These days, I mark the passing weeks not only by the calendar, but by how quickly I go through my packages of contact lenses. Failing eyesight is just another marker of time.

Maybe you feel like I do. Constantly rushing, trying to do and be everything culture dictates—so busy checking my calendar and making plans that I miss the now moments, the only ones any of us really possess.

I’m watching the little olive tree grow big. The flowers need replanting in hope of an Easter yet to come. The scripture carved in stone on Christopher’s grave marker is etched with six winters and summers, the damp sea air and the sun. My grandkids, each a walking talking marker of passing days, cannot wait for me to catch up with them. My hair is turning gray . . . or at least my roots are.

I need a place where time is not an enemy, where getting old doesn’t equal falling apart. I need a place where there is stillness, rest. How I need the One who is changeless, timeless, and eternal to steady my nerves.

This has to be the greatest challenge in a world where the words “Hurried, Worried, Buried” could be the epitaph on countless tombstones. We need to value down-time to purposefully disconnect from the tyranny of things and connect with God.

One simple way we can is by guarding our Sundays. Imagine if we did. By the end of one year, we would have spent 52 days recharging our batteries, rebooting our priorities, centering our spiritual lives. That’s seven and a half weeks of vacationing, resting, and worshipping Jesus!

Maybe we should think of Sundays as practicing—dress rehearsing, for an eternity of Sundays we will spend Him.

In the quiet

In the stillness

I know that You are God

In the secret of Your presence

I know there I am restored

When You call I won’t refuse

Each new day again I’ll choose

There is no one else for me

None but Jesus

Crucified to set me free

Now I live to bring Him praise

In the chaos, in confusion

I know You’re sovereign still

In the moment of my weakness

You give me grace to do Your will

When You call I won’t delay

This my song through all my days

All my delight is in You Lord

All of my hope

All of my strength

All my delight is in You Lord

Forever more

—”None but Jesus,” Hillsong United