Whew! Chile! I don’t know about you, but this year has been off to a quick start, and the pace has been quicker than I pictured. Does anyone else feel like that? Maybe you started a new job, moved to a new place, picked up a new hobby, or maybe the days are just flying by, and you weren’t ready to be at the end of January yet. For me, I’ve just recently moved to a new place, and the past few weeks have flown by. I feel as though I haven’t been able to really stop and take everything in. I was feeling overwhelmed one day, and at one moment I stopped and asked myself, who’s been applying all this pressure? I realized that, although I was holding onto God throughout this entire journey, at some point, I became comfortable and stopped involving Him in some things. It was mostly the small and mundane things I would often overlook, thinking it’s too much for God’s busy schedule.

I then began to put God into my schedule, reversing all of the pressure I had to make sure things were the other way around. At some point in our day, week, even in our lives, we must learn to pace ourselves.

I tend to be the Martha type more so than Mary –  for those of you who don’t know, basically there were two sisters, Martha and Mary. They were doing the doing tings, and then Jesus pulled up. Mary’s response was to take a seat at the feet of Jesus and hear his teaching. Martha, on the other hand, was still ‘foot on the gas’, doing work around the house. Martha was soooo pressed by her tasks and Mary wasn’t any help, so she complained to Jesus about it. You know what Jesus said to Martha? He told her that she was troubled by many things, and she was missing out on the one good thing that no one would be able to take from her. I hope you enjoyed the Dee Translation, but I implore you to read the whole story in Luke 10:38-42 in the translation of your choice.

Okay, back to my point! Sometimes, I get caught up with the work in front of me and forget to stop, and kneel down at Jesus’ feet. I tend to lean more towards Martha’s busy body tendencies, but I long to have Mary’s posture be my first response. I don’t know about anyone else, but sometimes when life begins to take over, it’s like I feel a tap on my shoulder as an invitation to pause and hear what God has to say. Sometimes I listen, and at other times, I don’t. Then I find myself going back to God, sulking out of fatigue or burnout when He tried to give me the opportunity to be recharged and filled ahead of time. I believe that when Jesus enters in the midst of our busyness, He’s inviting us to pace ourselves. To sit back, take a breather, and remember that it’s Him who holds the rhythm to the life we are living. Don’t brush off those shoulder taps; see them as an opportunity God is giving you to pace yourself.