STOP IN ORDER TO MOVE FORWARD

If I remember some economics classes I took years ago in college, there is something called the law of diminishing return. Since my economics books (the ones I kept, are in a box somewhere in the basement, I decided to Google this concept. This is what Wikipedia reads:

In economics, diminishing returns is also called diminishing marginal returns or the law of diminishing returns. According to this relationship, in a production system with fixed and variable inputs (say factory size and labor), beyond some point, each additional unit of variable input yields less and less output. Conversely, producing one more unit of output costs more and more in variable inputs. This concept is also known as the law of increasing relative cost, or law of increasing opportunity cost. Although ostensibly a purely economic concept, diminishing marginal returns also implies a technological relationship. Diminishing marginal returns states that a firm's short run marginal cost curve will eventually increase.

What is true in economics is true in every day life too. There are only so many hours in a day and only so many things you can cram into it. There is a time when we work and work and get less and less done. There comes a time when the cost of working too much negatively affects what should be our most precious relationships. There is a time when not stopping long enough to rest starts affecting our mind and our body. Why do you think God created Sabbath? Why is it that this is a commandment I break way too often?

These past several weeks have been packed with things. Writing sermons, writing articles for the newsletter, visiting and talking with people, counseling sessions, getting a wedding service finalized, working on an Emmaus walk, a stewardship campaign, committee meetings, planning, on the ministry end of things.
Trying to keep up with laundry and some cleaning (OK, don’t look in the corners)… A lot of good things but too many good things. And I realize that it is after 9 pm and I have not really stopped and the past several weeks have been like that. Tuesday, I decided I had enough. I had to stop.

It had been 2 months since I got a haircut. I went to my favorite hair place and I got pampered for over an hour. Decided I wanted to have a little harmless fun so I decided to have a pink hair extension placed in my hair in support of breast cancer awareness month. (go to http://www.cancer.org/).
My husband Steve and I watched a movie that night and it felt great to just sit with one another. That movie really hit home. It’s called “Bucket List” with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. These two men, who in all likelihood should never have met, find themselves united while they fight cancer together. They realize that there are a lot of things that they wanted to do before they died so they write a list and, during a short time of remission, decide to do some of the things on the list. Steve and I talked about that. What would be on our list? Steve said he wanted to work on and drive great hot rods; travel into space…
Some of my dreams would be to travel in the U.S.; going back to France and talk with my Mom and Dad about life; go visit places like the “Mont St. Michel” (St. Michael’s Mount in Normandy) http://mont-saint-michel.monuments-nationaux.fr/en/; go to pastry chef school… Sit on a great sandy beach somewhere sunny and warm and read great books and write about life, about the healing power of God and talk with people…

We talked about that healing power tonight in Bible study. I talked but I did a lot of listening too and I felt so grateful to be with the people in our group, to hear some of their life stories and witnessing again the transforming power of God. An 11 year old neighborhood boy has been joining our group these past few weeks. He also comes to worship most Sundays, all by himself. He lives with his grandma next door to the church but she is not ready to come to worship, she says. Something to talk about. This boy is hungry for God, for affection. A parishioner bought him a new Bible this week and he proudly showed it to us, read with us, asked questions, listened… God is at work doing something good.

Hung out with our youth group last night and listened to a young lady from a local agency talk about the importance of purity and waiting till marriage. It was cool. The kids (oops, young people) told me they like my pink hair. I like it too.
My maternal grandma Dorothy died of breast cancer. My husband Steve’s Mom died of breast cancer. This little streak of pink reminds me of them and that there is hope as long as we don’t give up finding a cure for this and all cancer.

Stop… Listen…

Taking a step back in order to move forward. Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)
God, help me slow down and see you in new ways each day. Help me to really breathe and to really see and hear and smell and taste the world around me. Help me to live fully. Thank you for the awesome gift of life. Thank you for the amazing people you send in my life.