Busy Life ?! ...

Friday, Jan 17, 2020. Many of us lead a busy life. It is not only those with full jobs and a family. It is already the kids at the age of 16 or 17, who are busy busy busy. There is school. There are various activities, some musical instruments or sports, friends, parties, trips.

If you have a family, there are various things which will fill your time. The composition of your day will highly depend on the age of your kids, and on their particular activities and well-being. Young kids need a lot of direct attention. Older kids need your contributions on other levels - sometimes just funding, but often lifts by car, or help in school or various other things.

My Day …

How is your day structured? What is filling your day? When do you get up. Bathroom, shower, breakfast. That might take an hour, of sometimes a little more. Some of us are faster in the morning. But it takes some time to take care of ourselves with respect to basic body care.

Imagine a typical working day. Perhaps you have to commute, and it takes you 45 minutes. Some of us are on the road for 90 minutes each direction. That is a lot, taking time which is difficult to use effectively.

Then we are in our work environment. Perhaps we share an office with one or two others. There is administrative work to do. There are various meetings with colleagues, with our line manager, with our customers. Then, we prepare documents. Some work on coding. Some write concepts. Perhaps we work on some pieces of art, some poems, songs. Perhaps we work in design, science, development. Perhaps we are in the front desk of our employer, dealing with customers. Or on the phone. Or on the road, selling our company and its products. In any case, it is difficult to have time to think about life. It is not trivial at all to be able to step back out of our routine and the immediate needs of our work environment.

Then, we go back from work. It might be 6:30 when we arrive home. We turn on the heating. We deal with the kids. We prepare dinner. There might be some friends coming in the evening. Or we just sink down into our livinig room, exhausted from a busy and full day. There might be things in the house to fix. When do we do shopping? Someone has to go to the grocery store. Quickly get some light bulbes from somewhere. The rain coat is torn - where do I get a new one or get it repaired? Shops are closed by now. I am tired. Perhaps watch some series on Netflix and go to sleep? …

God in my day …

The bible suggests to have God in my day. Where is space to talk to God, to pray? What is the role of my faith at all in all my activities? Is it only for the church service on Sunday morning, to take time to talk to God, to think about him, to think about the overall framework of my life?

The New Testament idea of our life is different indeed. The apostles suggest to have our relationship to God in all of our activities. We might even pray in the morning, take some minutes before we enter the bathroom. We might say hello to the eternal God when we wake up, just to start the day by clarifying to ourselves that he is in control of this world. It is not up to us to save it.

It can be extremely healthy to start the day with a little bible word. It is known as “Moravian Daily Texts”, which are distributed and can provide something like a little bible snack in the early morning. But more than that, the idea of the New Testament is to have God in all of my activities. He should be there when I deal with the kids. I can ask him for blessing, help, protection, guidance and input when it comes to my love and care for my family and beyond.

God wants to be on the road to my work place. The time in the car can be a reflection time. On the road, I can learn from the Lord. Indeed, I had some of the best prayer times of my life when I was stuck in traffic jams somewhere in Northern France on the way to the UK.

But also in my work place God does not need to stay outside. First of all, he can balance my emotions and my activities. With the biblical perspective, all our activities can gain a wisdom and b balance, which they would never be able to achieve and hold without the power of the Holy Spirit. What does it mean? It means, for example, to keep a balanced view on the interest of myself, the interest of colleagues, of my company or institute and the customer. They all have their life. They are all loved by God, he wants them all. He wants good things for them, as he wants good things for me. There are solutions when it comes to the balance of interest. Fairness is a core character feature of the eternal God. Truth, fidelity, mercy, justice. This all can lead my day.

God is not only an ethical God, but he is a powerful God as well. He can change things. He can help. Sometimes he wants to help immediately. Sometimes he wants me to work patiently towards some goals. All of this can be a framework for my day, for my work. There so much to learn and to discover when it comes to God in my busy days. Lord, please be my guide and companion! (Roland Potthast)

This is part of the trilogy project “Faith of a Scientist”.