Just give me the beat…<3
Today is very tricky here…outside our windows it is so sunny and with all the green on lawns and trees I would expect to step out into a warm spring day. But instead the temperature is dropping and with the wind chill it is a mere 45 degrees outside. We even have a freeze warning for the night, which makes me glad I have not put any flowers out in the pots.
I find it unsettling…much like most things these days.
Every single day, I have some choices to make about what I have control over and what I don’t.
Last Sunday, after our own church service, we enjoyed listening in to the sermon offered by our son John’s pastor in Austin.
He addressed the way some of the changes in life as we know it have brought some positives and one was that it forced new rhythms in to his home life that have slowed them down and given them time to connect in better ways.
He expressed concern about the inevitable move back into busier schedules that are definitely necessary for businesses and schools and churches to see happen. It helped me to hear someone else say that this transition will not be easy as we figure out how to take some of what we have learned about our busy-ness being a little over the top and yet resume activities that are part of life here on planet earth.
He talked about the role of both tempo and rhythm in music and in life.
Employing the infamous metronome next to his drum set, he explained how a metronome keeps the same time whatever it is set to. 100 beats per minute…140 beats per minute. It just ticks away the tempo with no variation. He explained that some of the tempo of our life is set for us, and some is set by our choices.
Work, school, care for homes and family and friends, volunteer opportunities, relationship building, entertainment choices and gatherings will come to us as America “opens up.” Some of these will have a tempo we have no control over, and some we can have a say in.
As he sat in front of his drums, he played several different sets of rhythms. Some sounded faster and more complicated, some slower and simpler.
He pointed out that the beats per minute never changed, but the rhythm at which he played produced music that sounded slower or faster depending on his activity.
We set the rhythm was his point.
There will still be 24 hours in each day in the coming months, each lasting sixty minutes. For some of those hours you will need to eat some meals…sleep…clean…work…play.
He summed it up with the thought that we should control the rhythm of our lives instead of the rhythm of our lives controlling us.
Before this whole Shelter in Place thing came about, I was moving at a helter-skelter pace.
Last fall I was working on a Bible Study and one of the questions was about what has control over me, what has a hold over my life and as I sat and pondered the question I knew it was my calendar. The demands of the week had me on the go more than time at home, which is something a person like me needs for refueling. I was depleted and just running from one thing to the next. It made me anxious and resentful and just plain worn out.
Well, I certainly have encountered an abrupt change in rhythm the past weeks as all events were canceled and the only time I ventured out was to get some provisions for our meals.
I have learned some things in this time,
I have found there are material things I thought I needed that I don’t. I have found more efficient ways of doing some things around the house now that I have had time to think straight. I have discovered some stuff I have held on to that needs to be let go and I have realized that I overcomplicated relationships when really just sitting and talking to someone or taking a walk with a friend or throwing some cheese and crackers out on a table with a couple of chairs distanced 6 feet apart counts as fellowship.
The pastor finished with this quote from Winston Churchill “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” and he added his own thought to be pondered…”We do not have to return to the same rhythm of our pre-Covid life.”
I don’t know how I am going to manage adding back in and yet retain a healthy rhythm of time spent here at home, but I know that I have seen a better way to thrive instead of survive and I do not want to waste what I have learned.
I pray for God to give me wisdom about marching to His beat in the days to come.
May you be blessed as you find the pace for the race marked out for you <3
Love and peace and have a beautiful weekend <3