To-Be List

It’s a funny thing leaving everything behind, letting go of stuff, cramming what belongings you think you’ll need into 250 square feet and trying to figure out where to go first. And here we are at the beginning of October – already.  Time is fleeting and the days already feel like they’re being measured. 

Amazing, what a challenge it is to find a rhythm to life, where ever you may be.  We are so wired (in North America) to live according to ‘what’s coming? What’s next?’  Just to live in the moment requires us – no, forces us - to look at what it means to be content.  Content with who we are, content with where we are, and content with the task at hand, no matter how simple.  Everything in our culture seems to push us away from being content.  Even during a sabbatical old manners of thinking kick in, and I struggle to be content.

“Relax,” Matt says. Easier said then done. It’s a challenge to be still anyway, but this is part and parcel of why we’ve left…  

We’re all hard-wired for rest, but if God is not invited into each moment, how easy it is to be swallowed up with restlessness; something I didn’t expect from being on sabbatical.  Questions so easily push the moment to the side:  Where should we be? What should we be doing? How much time is left? ...And, suddenly contentment has left the building!

My to-do list (even during this Sabbath time) need to be exchanged for to-be list.  And I think the prescription for learning to live in the moment is thankfulness. To be thankful changes everything.  The kids are teaching me this.  In every place we’ve camped, no matter how broken down (and let me tell you, some places have been humble), the kids have found something to be thankful for.  A play park, a new dog, a friend to meet...

“Be still and know that I Am God.”

You know what’s next, God.  Thank you for this very moment, this day and our daily bread. Thank you for my kids, my partner and best friend, and this journey you have us on...