Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.
They say......
sometimes it is better to do nothing at all.
After 387 days of balancing
work while building a house,
it arrived.
No, not Christmas,
not my birthday...
no, not even Arbor Day,
something even better.....
a vacation,
a real vacation
Not a working vacation
where I tried to make as much
progress on the home construction as possible,
Nope,
this was a vacation
where I stopped....
stopped planning,
stopped building,
stopped scheduling.
I just stopped.
Stopping is something that we don't do much of
in our culture.
We barely stop at stop signs,
let alone stop our schedules
so that we can rest,
so we can rejuvenate,
so we can enjoy just being.
It would have been easy to plan a trip skiing,
or a cruise to a warm climate,
but that wouldn't have been stopping,
just re-directing my energy.
No,
for seven days,
I did nothing.
Even when I did something,
it was nothing.
When I looked into the refrigerator
that was crying to be cleaned,
I grabbed a snack and walked away.
When I opened the door to the closet
that desperately needed to be organized,
I simply found what I wanted beneath a pile of rubble
and scampered away.
When I thought about writing those
after Christmas Christmas cards,
I instead, took a nap.
This is not easy thing for a type A personality to do.
It takes discipline to do nothing
when one is always about doing something.
One day I put together a jig saw puzzle.
Another day, I took it apart.
Later in the week, I devoted a morning
to not making my bed.
The business of doing nothing
reached it's culmination towards the end of the week
when I decided to watch all three Back to the Future movies
back......to back......to back.
There are not many things that I will do back to back to back,
but give me Marty McFly and the Flux Capacitor
and I am on the couch for the day.
While the rest of the waking world was
trying to restore the economy,
I was popping popcorn.
While the government was trying to
solve the North Korean nuclear crisis,
I was riveted as to how Doc Brown would
avoid a time continuum disaster.
There is benefit to devoting yourself to doing nothing.
A well planned nothing can have many benefits,
if its intention is renewal and rest.
God, the Father didn't merely suggest taking time to rest,
He commanded it.
Jesus, the Son demonstrated it.
He went off by himself,
He gathered with friends at table.
He even found 40 days in his schedule planner to devote to prayer.
Doing nothing isn't the end,
but a means to the end.
The end is when one notices the beauty in an overcast winter day,
when one finds time to breathe in restful moments even during the fastest paced day,
when one realizes they are in constant awareness of their relationship with the Lord.
The refrigerator still needs to be cleaned,
the closet needs to be organized,
and I still want to write greetings to long distanced friends.
Those things will get done.
But sometimes it is better to do nothing at all,
so that rest gives one the strength to do something.
Just like the movie,
sometimes you need to go back,
so that you can go forward.
If you take any of these suggestions,
no need to thank me...
think nothing of it.
And after Jesus sent the multitudes away,
He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray;
and when it was evening,
He was there alone.
- Matthew 14:23
They say......
sometimes it is better to do nothing at all.
After 387 days of balancing
work while building a house,
it arrived.
No, not Christmas,
not my birthday...
no, not even Arbor Day,
something even better.....
a vacation,
a real vacation
Not a working vacation
where I tried to make as much
progress on the home construction as possible,
Nope,
this was a vacation
where I stopped....
stopped planning,
stopped building,
stopped scheduling.
I just stopped.
Stopping is something that we don't do much of
in our culture.
We barely stop at stop signs,
let alone stop our schedules
so that we can rest,
so we can rejuvenate,
so we can enjoy just being.
It would have been easy to plan a trip skiing,
or a cruise to a warm climate,
but that wouldn't have been stopping,
just re-directing my energy.
No,
for seven days,
I did nothing.
Even when I did something,
it was nothing.
When I looked into the refrigerator
that was crying to be cleaned,
I grabbed a snack and walked away.
When I opened the door to the closet
that desperately needed to be organized,
I simply found what I wanted beneath a pile of rubble
and scampered away.
When I thought about writing those
after Christmas Christmas cards,
I instead, took a nap.
This is not easy thing for a type A personality to do.
It takes discipline to do nothing
when one is always about doing something.
One day I put together a jig saw puzzle.
Another day, I took it apart.
Later in the week, I devoted a morning
to not making my bed.
The business of doing nothing
reached it's culmination towards the end of the week
when I decided to watch all three Back to the Future movies
back......to back......to back.
There are not many things that I will do back to back to back,
but give me Marty McFly and the Flux Capacitor
and I am on the couch for the day.
While the rest of the waking world was
trying to restore the economy,
I was popping popcorn.
While the government was trying to
solve the North Korean nuclear crisis,
I was riveted as to how Doc Brown would
avoid a time continuum disaster.
There is benefit to devoting yourself to doing nothing.
A well planned nothing can have many benefits,
if its intention is renewal and rest.
God, the Father didn't merely suggest taking time to rest,
He commanded it.
Jesus, the Son demonstrated it.
He went off by himself,
He gathered with friends at table.
He even found 40 days in his schedule planner to devote to prayer.
Doing nothing isn't the end,
but a means to the end.
The end is when one notices the beauty in an overcast winter day,
when one finds time to breathe in restful moments even during the fastest paced day,
when one realizes they are in constant awareness of their relationship with the Lord.
The refrigerator still needs to be cleaned,
the closet needs to be organized,
and I still want to write greetings to long distanced friends.
Those things will get done.
But sometimes it is better to do nothing at all,
so that rest gives one the strength to do something.
Just like the movie,
sometimes you need to go back,
so that you can go forward.
If you take any of these suggestions,
no need to thank me...
think nothing of it.
And after Jesus sent the multitudes away,
He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray;
and when it was evening,
He was there alone.
- Matthew 14:23
.
1 comment:
What a wonderful way to explain doing nothing. Pastor Robert, I hope that you take this advice from your brother and follow it. You need to take time for yourself and what better way to do it than to do nothing.
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