Too much!

I hate that ad on television for Angie's List where the woman says, "I'm busy, busy, busy."  Aren't we all? 

I've also heard that phrase, "ask a busy person."  I suppose that means that a busy person might also take on one more job, OR it could mean that the busy person just can't say no.  There was a whole book written about how to say no to obligations/invitations/responsibilities.  Sometimes it is necessary to say no to preserve sanity and family life. 

Well, right now I'm a little bit swamped, so I apologize again for yesterday.  Honestly, until I sat down this morning to do the blog, I'd forgotten all about yesterday.  Isn't that terrible?   But I do want to keep this thing going, and posting daily on a schedule is one of the rules.  And I've been messing up.

Not to wish anything away, but once I get the book typed, the class reunion finished, and the craziness of summer, then things will return to a more quiet pace.  And then what?  That's why I say -- I'm not going to wish it away but right now too many things have landed on my plate.

Maybe you relate to this chaos; maybe you do better managing the chaos.  I figured I'd get this posting done this morning, because the roofers are coming and will be working right over my head on a section of roof damaged by that storm about a month ago.  Then it will even SOUND like chaos.

Doesn't it seem like the world's gone nuts lately.  The story that keeps coming to my mind all the time is Mosul.  The Christians there had a church and Mass was said there for I think they said 1600 years.  Today they have a deadline.  Convert to the Islamic faith or die.  It's appalling!  There are going to be martyrs today in Mosul, like there were martyrs after Christ's death.  At least one time or another in our lives, we might have had someone challenge us by saying -- what if someone said it's your life or your faith?  With God's perfect plan, we save our lives by losing them in the faith. 

The student at Columbine who identified herself as a Christian died as a martyr.  Many priests have died for the faith over the years, notably Maximilian Kolbe.  In his case, he offered his life to save that of another prisoner in Auschwitz.

When we gather together as Christians at church, we are bolstered and blessed with our togetherness and we are ready to take on the world again.  It is the temptations of the world that fall before us every single day and it is those temptations that we must resist.

I'm talking about the lure of materialism for one thing.  I'm talking about wasting time on things that don't matter.  I'm also talking about busy, busy, busy.

Even we Christians can easily fall into the trap of filling our lives with so much "stuff," even when it is good stuff until we are worn out, tired, and useless for much of anything.

When Mother Teresa was a younger nun, she got permission to go out among the poor.  Day after day she would go out and she found herself so moved with pity that she offered others her lunch.  Finally, suffering from exhaustion and hunger, one of the older nuns who was taking care of her gave her some very good advice.  She told Mother Teresa that she couldn't be of any use to God if she didn't take care of herself.  From that day on, Mother Teresa ate her lunch to fuel her body for the work of the Lord.

So let us shoulder our cross today and do the work of the Lord, wherever that may be.  And let us not get trapped in too much busy, busy, busy.  I'm talking about myself here too!!!