It is a misconception that the stress we feel today is because of the current pace of life, the spread of technology, or the political turmoil we see around us and throughout the world. A great English theologian of the 19th Century, Frederick D. Morris, wrote about the dis-ease of busyness and how it causes stress, a depleted spirituality, and decline within the ranks of the church. He wrote that the busyness that causes harm to us comes from our distrust of God. We search frantically for things to give us peace, but the search leaves us restless. Morris was not saying that we can't be busy; he was saying that we need to be busy with things that matter in this world. When we make our busyness the focus of our life and worth, we become stressed restless and unhealthy.
“I know that if I make time for God, God will make time for everything else.”
When we learn how to manage the demands on our lives and cope with the worries of the day, we are putting our faith into practice, and we are healthier for it. Years ago, when I was first starting out in this work of healing at
Thistle Farms, I met a woman who had eleven children. She said she started every day by going to mass at a nearby church. I asked her how, with all the demands and the stress of that number of children, did she make time for that? Her answer was simple: "I know that if I make time for God, God will make time for everything else."
She was not stressed, and the peace emanating from her heart taught me a great lesson to carry into my work and motherhood. We will always be busy, but if we have our eyes on the long-term goal of being faithful and the short-term goal of making time for God, everything else will fall into place.
An excerpt from Love Heals.
PEACE AND LOVE,
Becca
