Today’s question: WHERE IS YOUR INVITATION TO STOP DURING THE DAY?
This is Day 6 of the 5-week Lenten journey with The Society of Saint John the Evangelist and their daily meditation on TIME.
See Br. John Braught on the video (2:35) below, or to leave comments on the Brothers' website, go here. (http://ssje.org/ssje/2015/02/22/stop-2-accountable)
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Question: WHERE IS YOUR INVITATION TO STOP DURING THE DAY?
Transcript of Video:
What’s interesting when you talk about “Time to work,” is that my immediate reaction would be, “I need to make time not to work.” And a lot of people would find, themselves, that work is the kind of default setting: that you need to work and you need to make money and that I have to be intentional about not working. I think that maybe the invitation here is to think inversely. It’s actually good to be intentional about when you work. And that does mean stopping at the appointed time.
But it also means being very focused during the times that you are working. I think for me it is easier to break this up into bite-sized chunks throughout the day. So I might say, “Ok that between 8 and 9, I’m working on this,” and that’s what I do during that time. It’s making time to work: it has a beginning and an end, and even if the project is not done at 9 o’clock, I’m done.
Now we have an advantage here at the Monastery, in that we have a bell that rings ten minutes before four services every day plus a Eucharist, and so that is always a clear indication to stop the work. And then I might not be able to get back to that particular project that day. This is an advantage, although it is certainly not any practice that anyone is exempt from – stopping their day to intentionally eat, or intentionally pray. That advantage is I have eleven people waiting for me in Chapel who will have questions for me when I don’t show up. For me that’s one reason to join a monastery: it’s for that accountability – and we all need it.
-Br. John Braught
Blessings on our journey to re-order time in our lives,
Agatha