A Thought for Thursday 7/11/13

“Do not busy yourself with many matters; if you multiply activities, you will not be held blameless.  If you pursue, you will not overtake, and by fleeing you will not escape.  There are those who work and struggle and hurry, but are so much the more in want.”  Sirach 11:10-11

Not only has “multi-tasking” been shown to be largely a myth, but it may do a job seeker well to consider that a prospective employer who requires “multi-tasking” as part of a job description may be one to avoid because of the wisdom of Sirach in which “those who work AND struggle AND hurry … will be left in want”; that is, lacking in every actually catching up, never quite accomplishing what needs to be accomplished, never quite satisfying the employer and thus always being under undue pressure for fear of losing the job that was set with impossible standards to begin with!

Our daily living is no less worthy of consideration in “multiple activities” in which we will “not be held blameless”.  Understand, however, that the “blame” is not in the “multiple activities” in and of themselves; rather the blame is in the neglected activities that truly require our undivided attention.  In our United Methodist tradition, it is the means of grace that require our devotion and undivided attention.  These are those ways by which we connect and stay connected to our Lord; in prayer, in Scripture study, in fasting, in worship, in attending to the Sacraments of the Church.  We neglect these to our own destruction by pursuing those other things we will never “overtake”; the things which will always leave us in “much more in want”.

Let discipleship be the one thing we pursue with all due diligence.  Let us first be found in the Lord, then (if we trust our Lord) He will show us the way in which we must go.  “Seek first the kingdom of God, then all these things [you need] will be added to you”, says our Lord Messiah Jesus.

Blessings,

Michael