Too Busy to Be Busy?

A little girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Sunday School class. As she ran she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late! Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!" While she was running and praying, she tripped on the curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.

She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again. As she ran, she once again began to pray. "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late...but please, don't push me either!"

It's easy to go too fast in today's world, isn't it? I think it starts while you are a teenager. Life gets busy. From there it just seems to get busier. Marriage, children, careers, sports and then you are dealing with teenagers again! This time, it's their schedule, not yours! It's easy to feel like that little girl in the story above, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late...but don't push me either!"

You know, life can be a less frantic if we can learn a lesson from a traffic light. Every traffic control light has three colors; green, yellow and red. Just like traffic lights, people have green, yellow and red times in life. Sometimes, we go. That's a green time. Sometimes, we need to slow down and proceed cautiously. That's a yellow time. Then there are those red times when we are stopped but others can go. There are other people in the universe, right? Surely, someone else can have a turn, can't they?

What I get concerned about in my life are those yellow and red times. I excel in the green light times. After all, I live 2017. But what if the times call for a more cautious approach to life. Should I keep on spending extravagantly when the economy is down? Should I be gone all the time when my teenagers are struggling and need me just to be around? Should I keep on working all the time when my body, like the red light on my dashboard is shouting, “slow down?”

What do you do in a busy time in life when the traffic light is flashing yellow? My advice, slow down. Conducting your life in a yellow light time in a green light way can be dangerous to you and others around you. You may even trip and, just like that little girl, blame the Lord, "don't push me either!"

The Titanic received five iceberg warnings just before it went down. Then the sixth message came during the wee hours of the morning, "Look out for icebergs!" The operator wired back, "Shut up! I'm busy!" Thirty minutes later the great vessel whose captain said, "Even God couldn't sink this ship," was sinking fast. What happened? They forgot the truth about icebergs. What they saw above the water could not have sunk the ship. But, unfortunately for most on that vessel, most of an iceberg is below the water. When there are dangerous things below, proceed with caution.

The captain didn't even have to stop. All he had to do was just had to slow down. His greatest and last mistake for himself and others was he proceeded in a green light matter in a yellow light time. It would have been safe to go full speed ahead in just a few more hours. All he had to do was proceed slowly with caution. The lesson here is the only thing worse than waiting is wishing you had.

 

Ed Delph   June 26, 2017   CCC