What To Do

Remain still. Do not desert your patch of sand. Bear the heat without and the cold within. Put up with the boredom of having nothing to do and the emptiness of having achieved nothing. Do not ask what you are accomplishing. What you accomplish is unimportant. Realize that the most extraordinary thing you can do is to pass the time which never passes. Hope can make time pass. Hope is indeed the true dimension of time. Time is also a factor in our exodus from the slavery of hurry to the promised land of hope. - Alessandro Pronzato

Excuse me, BUT – I just worked many months on one project, and the day I finally finish I find this waiting in my e-mail: “What you accomplish is unimportant.” No, No, No! It matters!!! Why else would I have done all of that juggling to fit this project in with other equally taxing jobs that just weren’t as lengthy? Why sometimes I had two computers going at once, side-by-side, so that I could double my efforts to maximize processing time. You can’t tell people, especially those raised with Protestant work ethics, not to consider what they have accomplished! And if you want to know something else, I am quite accomplished at taking naps! So there!! I think I have a pretty good grip on understanding the slower side of life, and I can appreciate it even more after a week of deadlines, activities, meetings, and preparations. Remain still? I’ll fall asleep! An exodus from the slavery of hurry? I’m already late!

My prayer for the congregation?

Oh God of the ages, you bid us to honor your ageless wisdom. You call to us to listen to silence. We scoff, we argue, we balk. You call us to leave our words behind. We stomp, we frown, we write. You call to us to wait in stillness. We defer, we delay, we fail. We do not understand a time without hours, silence without noise, patience without end, and words without language. What curious things you ask. What unnatural ideas you desire. We could never think of these on our own, which gives credence that it is your wish and not ours. We will try to remain still, live in hope, and in doing so, worship you in a new way. Please be our guide. Amen.