There are a lot of changes that are coming to our family in the next few weeks. We're moving, it is seems that everyone knows this by now, well, almost everyone. It seems that our 2 year old son, Zach, still feels like he is somewhat in the dark about everything that is happening in his little (but rapidly expanding) world. He knows about "Oklahoma," but that's really it. What he doesn't know is why the house continues to get more and more empty, or why toys that he would run to with excitement and regularity are now no longer in their usual places. He does not know why big cardboard boxes keep appearing all over the house, and he does not really know what it means to have to say "goodbye" to his friends and his teachers at the amazingly wonderful school he has been in for almost his entire life. Changes are coming...changes that he does not understand.
If you were to spend no more than five minutes with Zach you would learn something rather quickly. He likes to be in charge. He's been like this his entire life. He wants things done a particular way, on his terms, and on his time schedule. It seems like just as soon as he could communicate he has had no qualms about letting his mother, myself, the dog, or anyone else know what he thinks, wants, and expects. But now things are changing...things he cannot control. So over the past week or so he has been diligently attempting to reassert some control over his surroundings. To say that a different way, he has been attempting to assert some control over me. This morning, for example, he told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to go to "Time Out." When I asked why, he just repeated again, "Time Out!" When I walked away from him, chuckling a little bit to myself, I looked back and he said to me, "I need Time Out." So I asked him, "Do you want to go to time out?" He said yes.
While this time Zach chose to instead go back to eating his breakfast, this was not the first time Zach has actually asked to be put in "time out." And I find myself wondering this afternoon, in the midst of the chaos and busyness of wrapping up things here in Pasadena and getting ready to make the move to Oklahoma, if Zach knows something that most of us forget. Sometimes in the midst of the chaos and calamity of our surroundings and as the inevitable reality of change comes to our neat little world sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves and really for every one else is to take a "time out."
For me, this is a difficult proposition. There's too much to do, there's not enough minutes in the day to afford the opportunity to take a few moments of quiet rest. This is at least what I think most of the time. But today, as I write this, I remember Jesus, who was a pretty busy guy himself. I remember that Jesus knew a little something about taking "time out." He demonstrated his knowledge of it's importance when he took 40 days in the Wilderness,or a time of solitary mourning after the news of his cousin John's death, and the night of prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. He put his faith and his knowledge of how God works into action by taking the time to go to a "solitary place" to rest, pray, and recover.
As usual, I learned something from my son today. I think that "Time Out" should become a thing, for kids and adults alike. How can we start to carve these moments into if not our everyday schedule, at least our weekly one? How can we begin to provide for ourselves the opportunity of not a vacation, not a trip to the spa or the golf course or the gym, but just a few moments of silence, stillness, and peace?
My prayer for today is that we all might provide ourselves the opportunity to rest, pray, and recover.
"Be Still and Know that I am God...." ~Psalm 46: 10
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