Most days, we don't give the thought of "What am I going to do today?" much play time. We get up, prepare for the day and march off to some prearranged activity. The activity might be a job, a sports or entertainment event, anything to do with kids or even just chores. It really doesn't matter. It was scheduled at sometime in the past and we respond to schedule pretty automatically. Shampoo vendors summed up this cycle nicely years ago with the instructions: Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
We generally tend to think of the day's work as a price we pay to be able get on to the things we really want to do. We might like or loathe any particular day's scheduled activity but really that's just a function of what happens to be on for us that day. We chose it (either explicitly or implicitly) some time in the past and today, or any particular "today", we follow through with the doing of it.
Occasionally however, our scheduled routines get broken by something unusual. This generally takes the form of either tragedy or triumph. Examples might be a sudden health or job setback, or a promotion or opportunity that was unknown the day before.
Our first response to change is usually to get the newly changed thing or status managed and scheduled. Cut it up, quantify it, see how it fits the budget and move on to tomorrow. As a result, we end up treating life like a never ending conveyor belt of incoming stuff. We in turn, tend to judge our happiness and even the value of our lives by our ability to manage all the incoming stuff.
I can't think of anyone I've met immersed in that lifestyle that stays happy with it forever, although some do show a great tolerance for long term stuff maintenance, particularly if times are easy.
It's pretty cliche, but living is just simply not about the stuff. It's not about whether you have it or you don't. It's not about whether you save the right amounts of it or not. None of the usual score-keeping approaches can score value, happiness or even security. That all comes from something else.
Namely, I think our value comes from identity and relationship. We're born valuable. As we grow, we learn from the love of those around us that this is true. In turn, we are taught and hopefully learn how to value others. For those of us who believe in a live, interactive God, we learn our value to him and learn to respond to that valuing with our own love and even worship.
Hurt and betrayal can cloud the learning of these truths either for a season or even for the better part of a life. However, I don't think that a broken wheel ceases to be a wheel. It's just a wheel that needs fixing.
In the end it's not about what to do or where to go. It's about who we are and what our purpose is.
Even so, everyday life still happens. The conveyor belt carries on. However, we mustn't become mesmerized with the movement, with the things coming down the line or with what we're supposed to do with them. We do need to give it all some attention but we must not allow it to give us definition.
One day we will be called away from the spinning and the whirring and the doing. In that moment, we must know who we really are. Otherwise, it was only the stuff that ever mattered.
And in that moment, the matter of what to do with the next piece of stuff will matter not at all, but the who of what we are will matter infinitely.
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