A common question I hear during this time of year is: “Where did the summer go?”  It isn’t so much a question as it is a lament of the limited time we have in this part of the world for summer.  It is as if we are surprised each Fall when the days begin to shorten and the trees begin to change colour.  The same challenge is true when it comes to our often-lamented limited hours in a day.  In our rushed culture where we foolishly try to jam more and more into our limited schedules, we forget the gift of rest and finding a healthy rhythm in our lives.

The creation narrative in the Bible (Genesis 1-2) speaks about God creating our universe in such a way that time has a rhythm and cyclical reality (night and day, seven days in a week, rotating seasons).  This was not a mistake or a consequence but it is a gift; however, we as productive and efficient North Americans bock at such inefficiency.

Think of it this way, by having limited day light hours we are forced to stop and rest – to reset for another day.  Or by having limited time we are forced to have others help us (something experienced by many farmers each Fall and Spring) and, as a result, we experience the beautiful gift of community.  Limitation is a gift to be celebrated not a limitation to be mourned.  If you had unlimited time, you would probably rarely ask for help from others and, as a result, live an isolated life of individual busyness.  But by God’s grand design, you have limited time, need to rely on others and, as a result, experience the gift of community, relationship, co-operation and support.

Think of time as a beautiful musical chorus.  God created our world to function in the rhythm of time (day and night – winter and summer) and this rhythm is something we are to embrace rather than rebel against.  It is similar to a beating drum.  The brilliance and genius of a good drumbeat is not the beat itself but the rest between those beats.  Some of us, in our lives of busyness, are just making noise and not learning the dynamic of rhythm and gift of rest.

I am not writing as a master in this topic but a fellow struggler that seems to pretend that he can fit more into a day than is possible.  This is not something I neither boast about nor embrace.  Instead, like you, I have been created to live in a rhythm of rest, embracing my limitations and seeking help from others in community. If I deny that rhythm, there are inevitable consequences.

I find it ironic that a hundred years ago the rich and powerful would boast about their leisure and recreation time as a badge of honour rather than their busyness.  Think about it.  If you were to ask a successful person how they are, the first thing out of their mouth today would be “I’m busy” and we would embrace that as the expected and celebrated answer.  Historically, this was not always the case.   Why has busyness become the mantra of success?  I think, partially, because it, strangely and sadly, gives meaning to our lives.   We are all in search of finding meaning and purpose to life and in lack of a good alternative, busyness becomes an easy and artificial substitute.

But, what if we embraced the limited time we have, asked for others to help, started to celebrate a quiet evening as a sign of God’s rhythm of rest rather than feeling guilty we are not producing something?  What if our identities were not equal to our productivity and, instead, we found meaning in something more powerful than that – God, through a personal relationship in Christ, and his unique purpose for each of us?  What if, we discovered that our purpose was not in our productivity but in our love for God and others?

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