Always Late

Spreading The Truth One Byte At A Time

By Ron Bender© 2008, 2013

My Best Friend's name is also Ron, I have known him some 30 plus years. Over that time span I have joked endlessly about his lateness at nearly every meeting, get together, or Bar-B-Q. He tries to make joke of it, “I’m sorry. I guess I need 25 hours in my day!” Invariably he was late for meetings and events because he was always trying to squeeze one more thing into his day.

Ron complained about having too much to do and being tired of rushing around all the time. He thought that his hurried, overcrowded life was inevitable for him who had a family and lived in the 21st Century. I too am a adrenaline junkie in recovery myself, I knew better! So I spoke the truth in love to him, “I think you like being in a hurry and doing so much. Maybe the feeling of urgency and importance energizes you. And besides it drives you finger-drumming, foot-tapping crazy when you have to wait for people! My Time is Just as valuable to me as yours is to you.”

Ron disagreed with me. I just smiled and left the matter in God’s hands.

A Nightmare Woke him Up to Reality

Sure enough, the night before Ron’s next meeting with me he had a dream that he took his family on a picnic. As they walked along he was carrying the picnic lunch and the lawn chairs and his wife was holding the hands of their children. And he led his family to sit down together on the fast lane of the freeway!

So there they were trying to enjoy their picnic lunch while cars kept racing by! Car after car that was driving in the fast lane had to slow down and move over a lane in order not to hit them. But then a truck came barreling down the freeway, close behind a car, and not seeing them sitting there, it was about to run into his wife!

It was then that Ron woke up – in his nightmare and in his life! He told me about his frightening dream and said, “You were right in what you said to me last week. I am going too fast. My wife has been trying to tell me the same thing.”

Ron Needed Jesus’ Easy Yoke

Ron’s conversations with me has showed me that he also agrees that he is to busy and is aware of how much he was using adrenaline to stay keyed up. He began to realize that he was choosing to fill up his calendar,from thing to thing, and that this hurried lifestyle was keeping him from enjoying God’s peace, hearing his voice, and being more attentive to people in his life.

To be sure, from time to time Ron had sought to be nourished by the God of Peace, like on extended family vacations or spiritual retreats. But it would always take him a long time to enter into a relaxed state of being and once he returned to his daily responsibilities he would go right back to his hurried self. Even more from all the time he had taken away from his "busy" schedule.

How did Ron get out of the fast lane and into Jesus’ easy yoke? What can we learn from Rons’s story about being still? He had to make a lifestyle change. Instead of getting himself keyed up with moving fast and doing lots of things at once, he began to say "No"

Ron learned to put more margin in his schedule, rest more, and slow down. Now when he is driving in his car or waiting in line he is doing so in a way that brings him peace.

The “Be Still” Prayer

Any change has to start from the understanding of what is wrong. An effort to change habits and process new taught pattern that aligns with Scripture. Spiritual disciplines such as “abiding prayer.” and slowly, listening to God’s Word as a personal message, breathing it in and out, and applying it to the stresses of the day.

“Be still and know that I am God… Be still and know that I am… Be still and know… Be still… Be.”

 

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Thank you!

Ron

Ronald Bender- President/CEO Bender Consulting.~http://www.benderbytes.net/bender_consult