In his book Celebration of Discipline Richard Foster writes “In contemporary society, our Adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry, and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in “muchness” and “manyness”, he will rest satisfied.”
I had thought that when the kids were grown and out of the house our life would slow down. I pictured Tina and I having time to rest and enjoy life: Maybe travel a little, relax, even rocking in a rocking chair came across my mind more than once. Maybe that sounds boring to you but when you have lived all your life in the land of 24/7 a little r&r is not out of the question is it?
I have this friend, actually he is more of a life coach, who is always telling me to “begin with the end in mind.” He always goes on about intentionality in life and how every time we say yes to something we say no to something else.
I guess one of the lessons the empty nest has taught me is that I have been saying “yes” to a bunch of things that were making me say “no” to the end I had in mind.
I thought this was O.K. because I thought that once the kids were grown and gone that would free up time for the dream of rest and quiet. But over the last year I have come to realize it was not my kids that made life busy. It was my choices. I am overcommitted because I choose to be. I let life create that choice for me. My kids leaving could not open up time for me because I was not committed to guarding my time.
Well I have the end in mind and clearly in focus. Now let’s figure out how to get there. Any thoughts?
Reinventing the We'll 