I don’t know about you, but this has been a busy month! May just kinda surprised me with how busy it got – and now June is almost here. I was talking to someone about this yesterday, and she said, “May is kind of like December – lots of extra things you have to do.” I had never thought of that before, but I think it is true – from graduations to sports, Mother’s Day to Memorial Day, spring cleaning to vacation planning – May can be a busy month! And busy can be bad.
The Bible tells us to make the most of every opportunity (Ephesians 5:16), literally “redeeming the time.” Sometimes it feels like I am not making the most of my time – I am just busy as a bee. I can be flying from project to project, meeting to meeting, activity to activity – and never know really where I am going. I can get so busy that I lose connection with my Leader. I have found that to stay connected to Him means I move at His pace. Strangely, though He is in charge of saving the world, I find that He is usually telling me to slow down, to hear Him, to soak up my time with Him. Jesus does not tell me to be lazy – but to work hard with Him, rest in Him, and move at His pace.
Lately I have been hearing the Lord really call me to soak up time with Him. Jesus is not just fuel for life; Jesus is the goal of life. I don’t just spend time with Jesus so that I can help others or have my activities – that is using my relationship with Him for my own goals. Jesus is the goal. I want to know Him and be filled with His love. Yes that love will overflow to others, yes He is my fuel and my source of encouragement – but I want to love Him even if there would be no “payoff” or result – just Him.
I have found, in the past, that when Jesus is calling me to slow down and be closer to Him that it usually means a storm is coming in my life. If I ignore the call it is to my own peril and harm. I don’t know if a storm is coming, but I want to hear His whisper, and heed His loving call. This May has been crazy, but I am trying to learn a lesson: to move at His rhythm and pace, and experience His way of life, and live for the joy of loving Him and being loved by Him, the Author of Love.
