Quick Jesus is coming… let’s be less busy!

Do you already feel like you need a holiday? That even after the Christmas break, January felt like a very long month? How many of you set targets for the year that you gave up on by the end of January? I saw something on social media about January being the trial month of the year and that February would be the time to actually begin the year! But how often does it feel like that each month of the year that we need to keep starting again?

Sometimes we can be focused on just the tasks that we have ‘to do’ and barely realise the amount of time that has passed us by and so don’t have enough time ‘to be’. Last month Revd James highlighted some images of Jesus and how we picture him when his name gets mentioned, particularly highlighting “The Son of Man who came eating and drinking.” Luke 7- V34. The ‘real and every day’ Jesus wasn’t concerned about being religious (the religious people told him off) but he was actually someone who took time and spent time with the people around him…the one who perhaps we have overlooked and don’t think could fit into our everyday lives.

Each month we can sometimes feel it is going to be different than the last, especially in these earlier colder months of the year. So perhaps it is time to become less busy (easier said than done I hear you say, and I say to myself) but maybe we need to refocus ourselves in the busyness of life to think about the real every day Jesus. Yes, he came as a baby at Christmas and was then put to death on the cross, but the majority of his life was as a human being who came to be with us, to be part of our every day, to spend time with us and us with him.

So, as we move through February (or perhaps ‘January take 2’) and as we try to make some order of the year ahead and what we might like to achieve, perhaps we can bring that every day Jesus into our lives – to just take more time. Achievement should not often be measured in our level of activity, but whether we take appropriate time in what we do: to spend more time on ourselves, with those who matter to us and with God who made us. To have such time means deciding to not get distracted by the urgent things that come at us, and add to our business, so that the important things (time with ourselves, people and God) are at the centre of our daily rhythm.

At St Peter’s and Blessed Mary, we have quite a few things coming up that will mean it will no doubt have another busy year! However, the hope for ourselves and for you is that we will all be people who focus on who we are as much as what we are doing – to take more time with people as Jesus did with those he met.

With prayers for ‘less business’ and more ‘time to be’ in February and the whole year ahead

 

Lizzie Davidson – Families and Outreach Co-Ordinator

Posted
10th January 2019

Filed under
James' Blog