"It's a trap!" Have you heard this phrase before ? Apparently it became popular as a famous line from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, where a character named Admiral Ackbar realizes the heroes are walking right into an ambush. I think I’ve heard it in a different context and I have actually used the phrase at times jokingly about things that seem to be good but could later turn out to be detrimental or dangerous.
But, “Busy”ness is not a joke because it contributes to so many challenges in life, personal, psychological, relational, and spiritual. Charles E. Hummel, in his booklet, “Tyranny of the Urgent” contrasts living our lives desperately attending to the seemingly urgent matters of life against the need to attend to matters that are truly important. Hummell suggests that the problem is “jumbled priorities” and the solution is to “wait”, to continue in the Word and prayerfully wait on direction, guidance, leading, from the Lord.
I hear you already, waiting isn’t popular and in fact many people think waiting is a waste of time. The culture many of us have lived in expects action, movement, values doing something and sees waiting as doing nothing. Henri Nouwen, on waiting, says that “for many People, waiting is an awful desert between where they are and where they want to go.” Did we miss the examples in scripture of those who waited, patiently, prayerfully for God’s direction, guidance, provision, rather than just doing something, following their own or other’s expectations for getting something done ?
Nouwen points out that all the figures which appear on the first pages of Luke’s Gospel are waiting: Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna.
“Zechariah and Elizabeth are waiting. Mary is waiting. Simeon and Anna, who were there at the temple when Jesus was brought in, are waiting. The whole opening scene of the Good News is filled with waiting people. And right at the beginning all those people in some way or another hear the words, “Do not be afraid, I have something good to say to you.” These words set the tone and the context. Now Zechariah and Mary, then Simeon and Anna are waiting for something new and good to happen to them.”
The spiritual life is a life in which we wait actively, present in the moment and confident that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.(Phil 1:6)
Avoid the Trap ! Don’t let “Busy”ness, or the Tyranny of the Urgent, or other’s expectations, rob you of the peace that comes from trusting, waiting, continuing in the Word.
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