“I know you’re busy but I just wanted to talk to you . . .” the woman on the phone said.
“I’ve nothing better to do than talk to you. What’s up?” I replied.
A pause.
“You’ve nothing better to do than talk to me?” she asked. “I know you’re very busy with many different ministries.”
When did being busy become a badge of honour, or importance, as if the busier we are the better?
We often identify ourselves by our occupation. We are often preoccupied with many things, some of which will never even be realities, but merely what ifs that we worry about.
To be preoccupied means to fill our time and place long before we are there. These preoccupations can make us anxious, suspicious, morose. The news spells out the dramas that are happening and advertisers tell us what we lack and what we are missing. We invite these foreigners into our homes to fuel our anxieties via our newspapers, televisions, radios and computers. The excited voices of the newscasters make everything so very important and the urgent voices of the advertisers make us think we must not miss this opportunity to buy now!
Exhausting. All of it. Utterly exhausting.
Henri Nouwen writes, “The tragedy is that we are caught up in a web of false expectations and contrived needs. Our occupations and preoccupations fill our external and internal lives to the brim.”
“In our highly technological and competitive world, it is hard to avoid completely the forces which fill up our inner and outer space and disconnect us from our inmost selves, our fellow human beings, and our God.”
“Worrying causes us to be “all over the place,” but seldom at home. One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there.”
“I’ve nothing better to do than talk to you. What’s up?” I replied.
A pause.
“You’ve nothing better to do than talk to me?” she asked. “I know you’re very busy with many different ministries.”
When did being busy become a badge of honour, or importance, as if the busier we are the better?
We often identify ourselves by our occupation. We are often preoccupied with many things, some of which will never even be realities, but merely what ifs that we worry about.
To be preoccupied means to fill our time and place long before we are there. These preoccupations can make us anxious, suspicious, morose. The news spells out the dramas that are happening and advertisers tell us what we lack and what we are missing. We invite these foreigners into our homes to fuel our anxieties via our newspapers, televisions, radios and computers. The excited voices of the newscasters make everything so very important and the urgent voices of the advertisers make us think we must not miss this opportunity to buy now!
Exhausting. All of it. Utterly exhausting.
Henri Nouwen writes, “The tragedy is that we are caught up in a web of false expectations and contrived needs. Our occupations and preoccupations fill our external and internal lives to the brim.”
“In our highly technological and competitive world, it is hard to avoid completely the forces which fill up our inner and outer space and disconnect us from our inmost selves, our fellow human beings, and our God.”
“Worrying causes us to be “all over the place,” but seldom at home. One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there.”
Inspired or quoted from Making All Things New by Henri Nouwen
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