The Slow Down Life.

Slow down and everything you're chasing will come around and catch you. ~John De Paola


I feel like I am living in this truth.  My breathe prayer as of late has been, "Be here now."  Perhaps you, like me, know that energy which seems to at some "mysterious moment" take an activity from chill to driven!  How much this steals from my life and especially recognizing the life of Christ around me. 


If the kingdom is now (and it is), then most days I feel like I'm missing it.  And while I'd like to blame it on God (and he graciously listens to my rants) I am quite sure it has something to do with this "energy" that refuses abiding and gets busy.


Okay. Pause. Do you hear my harsh tone with myself.  I know that is not His.  His is one of sadness and longing.  Sadness because He knows what driven energy steals from our souls.  Longing because He took the sacrifice and has made a new life possible.  He longs to retrain my mind, my very being in this new life.


Come.....


He invites me into the slow down life.


The slow down life that pauses.


The slow down life that lingers.


The slow down life that listens.


The slow down life that ponders.


The slow down life that lets things gestate and form.


This slow down life is not just to reform me but somehow changes things around me. People around me. It pauses to give permission. It draws people out. It speaks to a life going on beyond the everyday. A new life that settles in and says, "Hi. Nice to meet you" and cherishes what comes.


And here's the thing, all that energy to make something happen, fill the space, accomplish the goal actually sucks the life, deadens the space, and disrupts the goal. The irony is that when I slow down, I find nestled within what I've been looking for (rather straining for) and the blessed freedom and contentedness I find in that place makes it, well, priceless.


Our outward circumstance may not change. Mommies have kids, teachers have students, businesses have customers the difference is you and me, will we slow down and offer from that place?


Oh Dear Jesus, You lived this life.  You gave freely, offered sacrificially, and yet in the midst of all that was going on and even being demanded of you, you went away, slowed down, and offered presence.  You drew upon your Father, teach me to do the same.  Teach me that in the mess and even meddlesome, I can respond rather than react. Give instead of demandingly take. Abide instead of clamor.  You alone can can draw me into this new life. You alone can renew my mind to see the Kingdom around me.  Come, dear Jesus, teach me this life. May  I offer a reflection, a unique facet, of that kind of life to others. Amen.