During the holiday season, I am normally hustling and bustling around, using the "break" from work to check off as many things on my to-do list as possible. I usually want to make or buy the perfect gift for everyone on my list, send out cards to loved ones who lived, and be in a lot of different places at once, helping around the house, running to the store to pick up that last ingredient or two, volunteering with my old Girl Scouts troop or planning reunions with old friends. Christmas and new years was always a very hectic time for me and I grew to expect it.
Right before Christmas, however, I got sick and didn't fully recover until new years eve. I didn't have the energy to write very much, let alone run to and fro as I normally would have liked to. I was anxious at first, thinking of all the things I couldn't do, until I realized how it was an invitation to slow down, take the time to truly be present with those around me. Christmas is one of the only times in the year when everyone in my family makes an extra effort to come together and be in one place, regardless of how far work, school or life takes them so in a way I felt really blessed to have gotten sick and been "forced" to slow down and take the time to more deeply connect with them.
Are you being called to love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, but are too preoccupied to notice the invitations that are sprinkled throughout your day?
How can you renew your commitment to love others, even if it's something as simple as sharing a simple smile with the next forelorn looking stranger?
reflected by Kim Nguyen
reflected by Kim Nguyen
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