Busyness…Our sermon last Sunday was very appropriate for Mother’s Day. We are in a series called “Antidote…Gods Answer to _______” featuring Psalm 23, and each week Pastor Doug Wyatt from The First Church of the Nazarene in Hutchinson, Kansas has been speaking to a particular subject such as Worry, Fear, Damaged Emotions, Hurt, etc. It has been very good so far and he seems to hit the target on the head in a way that we can all relate to it.
“It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night…God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.” Psalm 127:2 (Living Bible)
Have you ever been in a church service and had the feeling that the Pastor had prepared his sermon only for you? Well, that is how I felt when I walked out of church last Sunday. He talked about many careers that make it hard for people to leave their work at the office, but my ears perked up when he talked about “entrepreneurs” he said they were the worst! (I’m thinking, hey, I’m one of those)…and said, you know those people NEVER leave work…they take it home with them, they take it in their car, to their Dr. appointments, and even take business reading material into the bathroom! They never take a break! I am guilty, guilty, guilty of every example he gave. I always thought that for entrepreneurs, that didn’t count because we LOVE our WORK… it can’t be that stressful because we LOVE what we do! God uses ways to get our attention though…
Psalm 23:2 says He MAKETH me to lie down in green pastures. Pastor Doug said that He does not say that He WANTETH me to lie down, but that he MAKETH me… He said that God WILL get our attention, and that if we don’t lie down and rest in our own bed, he just might find us in a hospital bed…
Fast forward to the wee hours of Wednesday morning. I wake up feeling so sick, with a terrible stomach ache and spend the next 12 hours between the bedroom and the bathroom (and no, there was no business reading going on :-)) and my mind did flit back to Doug’s sermon a couple of times in there and I thought, wow, here I am not at work today, maybe God’s trying to get my attention…but was too BUSY being sick to really think much about it. (Don’t worry, I won’t be posting any pictures of my experience!) The next morning (Thursday) I woke up and was thankful that I had slept most of the night, so I must be getting better. Got up and took a shower and about passed out in there, but came back and laid on the bed for a few minutes before drying my hair and getting a bit of make up on so I wouldn’t frighten anyone before I went, you guessed it, to WORK…
Of course I told my husband that I could drive and would be just fine. After all, I was done with all the flu like stuff and hadn’t thrown up in at least 8 hours, all I had left was a pain in my right side, and that was probably from all of the throwing up that had happened the day before. I would see him in town when we went for coffee. During the next hour, I realized that A) The pain in my side was getting more and more intense, not lessening and that B) I was having trouble walking and was getting weak. I called my Physician in Sterling (about a 40 minute drive) and got an appointment for 10:30. Met some friends at The Mustard Seed for breakfast at 9 but had no appetite, so passed along my breakfast to my husband, who by then had decided that HE WOULD be driving me to the Doctor…which was a very good idea…I am just stubborn about things like that! 🙂
I’ll spare you all of the gory details but ended up having an appendectomy later that afternoon. The pain just kept intensifying and I knew that they needed to get it taken care of. When waking up after surgery, I was thinking back to our sermon on Sunday, that if we won’t take time to REST, God will help us “Unwind” HIS way. Later that evening, Pastor Doug popped in to say hello and I said “It was YOUR SERMON!”…He laughed and we talked about the situation a bit…but it is so true. God does have to get our attention sometimes! Here is the rest of the outline from the sermon with the “Antidote” to Busyness…Enjoy!
God’s Way to R.E.L.A.X.
I. Realize my worth…God gave us life, we are important to him. There is NOTHING we can do that will make God love us more. James 1:18, Matthew 6:26, Isaiah 49:16
II. Enjoy what you already have. Don’t be so busy aquiring more. Eccl. 3:13, Ecc. 4:6
III. Limit my labor. The Sabbath means Rest. Mark 2:2, Eccl. 10:15, Exodus 20:9 & 10
IV. Adjust my Values. What good is it to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul? Eccl. 4:4, Mark 8:36
V. eXchange my pressue for God’s Peace. Physical fatigue, Emotional fatigue, Spiritual Fatigue Matt. 11:28, 29
So, here I am, at home, RESTING after surgery.
(Ok, that’s not really me, I would at least have earrings and a necklace on 🙂
I won’t post any real pictures because I wouldn’t want to frighten anyone except my own family, and I am trying to be a good little sheep. Hopefully this will be a good reminder to just take time away and relax a bit…after all, you could stay at a really nice spa for a whole lot less than what this hospital bill is going to be!
Thank you to our daughter, Jenny and my husband, Jack for taking good care of me…and to our friends & family who have kept us well fed and encouraged since I came home.
I will be working on posting recipes soon, but for now, going to go take a nap! ~Till next time. Vicki
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