- What does God really require of us?
- Does He really want us being so busy we can't even enjoy life?
- Does He want us so busy we can't take an hour or two and laugh with our friends and family?
- Does He really want us so busy that we can't notice how pretty the leaves are today or how bright the sunshine was or how good that person made us feel?
- Does He want us to get so busy that we fail to take time to connect with the most precious things in all of His creation -- people?
- Does He want us to get so busy that we fail to connect with Him -- the One who made us?
I believe there's something that I've been missing for quite some time now. I've gone through life doing a lot of good things but missing the relationship side of life. Oh sure, I try my best to spent time with Jennifer and Hannah and Abby. They are the most important people in my life. We try take time to enjoy each other quite often - still probably not as much as we should.
But there's something in the human soul that longs for connections with other human souls. There's something that feeds us when we are able to share with others, love others, learn from others, laugh and cry with others, spend time with others. We were created for relationship.
I was reminded of this in two different ways recently.
The first was my trip to the Dominican Republic. The thing I enjoyed more than anything else was the pace of life. I realize that I didn't have a "job" that week and that it was not typical of what life is really like there, but the part I envied about their lifestyle is the time they have in their lives to connect with others. There's not the same rush and pace to life that we have here in the US. We have a lot more stuff because we work hard, and we make money so we can buy stuff, and we're the most wealthy nation on Earth. Nothing inherently wrong with wealth or having stuff. But that shouldn't be the most important thing in life.
In the DR, I sat on the front porch for over two hours one day, just hanging out, talking to the kids and the neighbors, writing, reading, just breathing. I can't begin to tell you how refreshing that was.
Yet, in the back of my mind, something kept nagging me: "You know you ought to get up and get busy doing something - you can't just sit here like this and do nothing."
Why was that?
In the DR, people would stop and sit down beside someone they knew in the park in the city center, and they might sit there and chat for a half hour. They didn't plan for it. They didn't have it on their calendar. They just saw someone they hadn't seen in a while, and they sat down to talk and reconnect. There's something I find very attractive about that.
The second way I was reminded of this was with a good friend this past week -- and even today. This friend's dad passed away suddenly while I was in the DR. I found out about it via Facebook from another friend. This friend and I grew up together, went to elementary school and high school together, and now work together. We've been close for many years.
Yet, there was no way I could be there for him when this happened. I was in a small town in the middle of the Dominican Republic - without a car, without a way home, without a way to connect with him. I felt really bad about it.
This guy -- he's kinda private about things like this and not too emotional. Like a lot of us guys. He's always even-keeled. But I know that if I was in that situation (and I will be one day), just having someone to talk to would be a big help.
He and I spent about a half hour on the phone one day as soon as I got back from the DR, and we've gone to lunch twice in the past week - including today. I've not tried to push him to talk about it -- I've just let him open up when he feels like it. I've just tried to be a friend. I don't know whether it's done any good. That's really not the point. The point is that I feel like I need to be there for him -- and for the others that mean the most to me in my life. I think sometimes that just being there is good enough. Just so that a friend doesn't have to be alone.
I'd much rather spend an hour with someone who is a friend or who needs me or someone whom I need, and just share life for a while together. As introverted as I am, I still need those connections with other people.
So, yeah, getting too busy to connect with people is not any way to live a life. At least not for me. Others might be called or created to run a hundred miles an hour and get a bunch of stuff done that will change the world. But that's not me.
I think I'll settle for just changing my little part of the world one person at a time.
-- by Micah Ray
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