A Monk's Life | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: A Monk's Life | Previous Challenge Entry
By Lois Farrow
10/27/16
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Paul looked in despair at his calendar. He’d just scheduled two dinners with his wife and one with his son in the next ten days. How had it come to this? Scheduling dinners with his wife? What happened to the days when they ate together as a family every night?

Success, that’s what they call it. But is that really success?

‘Lord,’ Paul prayed. ‘You see my calendar here. I feel it is out of control. Please guide me and show me what to do.’

In the next few days as Paul kept each appointment, rushing from one to another, he pondered the questions. Should he leave his company? Could he delegate more? Was he indispensable in this position, or should he step aside and let someone younger take over? He was still several years from retirement and they needed an income, but he was weary of this rat race, the pressure to fill every minute with something important and vital to the growth of the company. What should he do?

One night as he was about to drift off to sleep he recalled reading somewhere, a long time ago, a comment by someone – Lord, I have nothing to do today, but please you.

Nothing to do today but please you! Was anybody really in that position? OK, he thought the writer was a monk or something, so he supposed he had plenty of time on his hands. He wished he could recall who it was. A monk’s whole life was based around meditation and time with God, wasn’t it? So could he apply this to himself? Was that even realistic?

He had responsibilities, he had commitments, he couldn’t just sit down all day and say Lord, I have nothing to do today except please you.

Over dinner with Sally when he tried to express his feelings immediate relief swept over him. Paul couldn’t make drastic changes without thought and planning, but he could get a different attitude.

“I’ve been getting anxious and overwhelmed,” he confessed to Sally. “I need to pull back, make time to spend with the Lord to commit all my appointments to him, learn how to rest in him instead of worrying about it all.”

Sally agreed. “You can’t quite achieve a monk’s life, but we can work together on making things more manageable. I think it means to see God in everything of your day, even the very mundane things, and realise that God is in it.”

“We can clear our diaries more often to make time for each other,” Paul said.

“Great idea,” she said. “I need to learn this too. I need to learn how to say ‘no’ sometimes, instead of saying ‘yes’ to every request that comes my way.”

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