The holidays are barreling towards us.
Shopping. Decorating. Concerts.
Christmas pageants. Get those
holiday parties on the calendar. Prepare
the the house for guests, not to mention kids and a husband who will be home
for ten days. The food. Ack, the food.
All of the regular stuff must happen, too. Appointments and car tune-ups and bills and
service calls and we should really get another electricity provider - we are
paying way too much. Somehow the
cleaning and the toilet paper shopping and the laundry must get done, too. Is it any wonder that we are crazed over the
holidays?
Okay. I am crazed over the
holidays.
Every year, as the wave of Thanksgiving and Christmas and the New
Year looms, I look for a place to hide. I
want to protect myself from the tide and enjoy this time – shouldn’t we all
enjoy this beautiful time? – so I retreat. I find myself nose-deep in writing, reading, social
media, TV. I ignore certain things that
should be addressed, like kids needing help with homework and a husband who’s
talking about work. They deserve my
attention, not this article on Buzzfeed that consists of thirty pictures of
dogs sitting on cats.
But I can’t help myself.
The distractions are too many, the pile of work exhausting, and I am weak.
It’s not an effective way to address feelings of being
overwhelmed, to give into the paralysis that allthethings tends to elicit. It’s also not an effective way to get allthethings
accomplished. Yet I still give in to distractions.
I wonder why these things exist.
If the holidays weren’t here, I’d still find something to be overwhelmed
about, would still find the distractions that take my mind off of important
things. Ten years ago I wasn’t spending
much time on writing or social media. But
I was preoccupied with other things. Are
distractions here to test our character, teach us what’s important, remind us to
trust in God? Are they here to throw
another wrench in the system, to showcase our most ruinous sin, the one we
refuse to address directly?
The obvious solution would be to get rid of the distraction. Unplug.
Draw up a firm structure of when to work and when to decompress. Stick to that structure. When others are around, give them your full
attention. Make no exceptions.
But life isn’t like that. I
cannot draw up a schedule of when to work and when to play because life is
fluid, not confined by the time I have.
Activities and events are often cut off in the middle; conversations
started are stopped without conclusions; tasks and projects begin and are not
finished. A rigid schedule may get me
through this time, but it is only a bandage, stemming the flow right now only.
Distractions will present themselves until I give them the strongest
medicine available: the word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the example of
Jesus. When my focus is on anything
else, I will be distracted and overwhelmed.
When I give these feelings and things over to be dealt with by God, they
won’t bog me down any longer, and I will be free to manage the holidays, nurture
my most important relationships, and enjoy this life that I have been so freely
and wonderfully given.
Now is as good a time to start as any.
Dear God, my
distractions are many. Please help me
put them in their place. Thank you,
Amen.
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