Would you be willing to help with this…
In many areas of the country, activities that have been on pause for the past year are resuming.
Even though things aren’t quite back to normal (whatever “normal” means), the inevitable question is looming: would you help ____?
Maybe your blank is something with a clear timeline, like coordinating VBS at your church, or maybe it’s something ongoing like a new responsibility at work or a volunteer role.
Either way, there are at least two obvious responses:
- I’ve been trying to survive this past year, and you want me to __???
- I haven’t really done anything this past year, so yes, I can commit to all the things.
Obviously, I’m being a bit extreme here, but as organizations and businesses are trying to get their programs and services running again, it seems like a good time to step back and assess.
Many of us were running around, doing all the things before the big pause forced us to slow down. But as time wore on, we wanted our routine back.
What I’m thinking about is how do we go about restarting normal life without returning to this frantic pace of life.
One of the things I did during the pandemic was read. There were a couple of books in particular that caused me to think a lot.
One was Essentialism, and the other was Tiny Habits. These books aren’t theology books by any means, but they’ve caused me to step back and think theologically about what I’m doing.
As someone with a lot of interests, it’s easy to get pulled in different directions. There are many things I could do. But the problem is if I try to do all of them, I don’t really do any of them well, or I get so overwhelmed that I don’t want to do any of them.
So before jumping back into everything you were doing before, this spring is a good time to step back and ask yourself if you were just doing something because that’s what you’ve always done, or because you felt guilted into it, or because this particular activity is essential to you.
There’s no magic formula to tell you what you should be doing with your time. Instead, now is a great opportunity to step back and prayerfully consider whether the things you were doing are still the right things for you to do moving forward.
If you know what your most important work is, you’re also in a better place to decline well-meaning requests for help that aren’t in alignment with what’s most important.
So what is your blank and what is your response? Hit reply and let me know.
Keep planning.
Shelley
Wings Virtual Services LLC
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