On “Being”
By Penny Jackson
Recently a friend of mine told me that I do fine on “doing” but that I needed to learn to “be.” I know what he means; at least I think I do.
I can make a “To Do” list a mile long and can check off each task as I complete it. And you probably can, too. It’s the way of our world, but our lists are getting longer each day, and living under a constant check list is exhausting. But you know, I don’t think the world is going to slow down; that’s just not part of the plan.
It’s just not us adults who battle this, either; it’s our kids, too, only they don’t know what they are missing in life because they have known nothing but warp speed in their lifetimes.
But if things are not going to change and in fact seem to be getting more harried all the time, what then do we do? How do we learn to do more than survive in this world of ours?
One of the clear messages that Jesus gives in the Bible is in the story of Mary and Martha. While Martha’s task at hand was important, the preparation of their meal, Jesus admonished her for her efforts, saying that Mary had chosen the better portion by sitting at His feet. Martha was in the same room with Jesus as she went about her chores, but she was only partly with Him, her mind on what needed to be done next – setting the table, maybe stirring the food.
Mary, though…Mary gazed at Him, watched the expressions play across His face, heard His words, noticed His every nuance as He spoke, watched His every gesture. Mary with with Him, fully engaged in the present moment with Him. Now I don’t think Mary got out of all of the work. In fact I am pretty sure she had to wash the dishes. But when she was with Jesus, she was with Jesus.
And I think it’s all about being in that present moment, living in the present moment because that’s where God lives. He doesn’t live in a time continuum like we do. We are the ones who have a past, present and future, not Him; He just “is.” But I think as we learn to exist completely where we are at any given moment, then “being” occurs, and He is there and we are there with Him.
The Lord told me last summer not to procrastinate. I wish I could tell you that I took that word to heart, but the school year started, I forgot He had said it, and I made my school year a whole lot harder than it needed to be. The word “cras” right in the middle of “procrastination” is the Latin word for “tomorrow.” As I have asked the Lord about “being” and how to do it, He brought His Word from last summer about not procrastinating back to me, and I see how often my procrastination has kept me in the future. Better to have done the task when it first came on my horizon (and I now suspect at HIS nudging) than to have it hanging over my head – another “To Do” item for my list. As I would have done these things and really been absorbed in the task at hand, being it changing sheets or typing up a test, He would have been with me in that moment, that present moment and we could talk. I missed some real opportunities for that this year.
We Americans eat like we live our lives. We take a bite of food and scarcely taste it, barely savor it, before we take another bite in our effort to complete the meal. If we think we liked something, we take twenty more bites of it rather than slowing down to enjoy the one we just took. We do that in life, barely experiencing one thing before we are mentally planning our next move. It’s hard to hear God when your mind is on other things.
No, I don’t think the world will ever slow down. In fact, I think it will go even faster. So we must change. Instead of viewing our lives as one long “to do” list, we must learn to live our lives in a series of moments, present moments. There’s a rest in doing that because we are freed from the incredibly taxing process of planning the future or worrying over the past. And the Lord is there. I want to be where He is so, like Mary, I can see His expressions and hear His words and just “be”…with Him.
