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| Hoosier United Methodists together |
January 2007 |
| Body, Mind & Spirit |
Living fast-forward
By Todd Outcalt
Once a month, our family has a movie night together. We go to the video store and rent a DVD to watch on the large-screen TV in our basement. Inevitably, however, I get into trouble for using the fast-forward button on the remote. I speed through the previews and the opening credits and, if I could, I'd speed through the FBI warning about illegal duplications of the video. I guess the movie powers won't allow us to shed these apparent necessities, even though I've never read them.
My fast forwarding obsession gets me into trouble with my family, who eventually demand the remote and banish me to the corner dejectedly to watch the movie with our dog. They want to experience everything the DVD has to offer. I just want the highlights.
Considering my fast-forward obsession, I wonder if I'm not the product of a culture that tells me that I must speed up, switch to high gear and skip the details? Like most people I know, I seem to live in the next moment rather then the present one. While I'm talking on the phone at the office, I'm frequently checking e-mails, sorting files or glancing ahead to the next appointment on my crammed calendar. It's not what I'm doing that counts, but what I could be doing.
Perhaps this is the one obsession we see most frequently in our society. We are in the fast forward mode: on highways, at work, at home, even in our recreation. We are looking ahead, planning, fast forwarding to the places we want to be, toward the things we want to do, toward the life we want to live.
But what if 2007 could be different? What if we tried living without the fast-forward button?
Living more in the moment, enjoying the blessings of today, listening and conversing with friends without having to rush off to do the next thing, all sounds like heaven doesn't it?
Perhaps that is what Jesus was saying when he asked us to consider the lilies of the field. Flowers don't worry about tomorrow; they don't have to grow somewhere else.
Too often, we measure ourselves and our success by what we can accomplish in a day, or cram into one hour. We really have no time for people - just activities.
Remember, we are not "human doings" but human "beings." We were created for relations with God and with each other. We were created to enjoy God's creation and blessings. Our existence is a joy to God - not our accomplishments. That's why it's called grace.
Let's try to remember that as we begin 2007. In the meantime, has anyone seen the remote?
Todd Outcalt serves as senior pastor of Calvary UMC in Brownsburg, Ind.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008