Have you ever notice that when you get too busy things start to fall apart? It reminds me of a nuclear reaction! Way back in the fortys when the cold war was just beginning I was in grade school. In addition to practicing “hiding under our desks in case of attack” we also had a program on nuclear reactions. The visiting speaker placed hundreds of mouse traps,set with corks instead of bait, side-by-side inside an enclosed glass cage. Then he dropped a single cork through a small opening in the top. One trap went off sending its cork flying and setting off another trap; soon there was a chain reaction, and, like corn popping, all of the traps went off in an explosion. Yesterday all my traps were exploding!
As you all know I have this book coming out. It is my third, but I don’t remember the other two being so complicated. Of course, I was younger then and less compulsive, and I might have felt more confident but, today’s busy schedule has me constantly tired – almost to the point of being irritable!
This morning, though, all my traps popped and things started to quiet down. At lease I am hoping so. Maybe it’s just my attitude! Here’s what happened.
In our church’s men’s reading group we started a new book: The Holy Longing, by Ronald Rolheiser. In it he talks about how we can so burden ourselves looking for things that are not really important that we have no time left to seek spirituality. Furthermore, spirituality is the only thing that can bring us peace and comfort. I knew that; but ambition got in my way. The men in the group, without their knowing it, helped me find my way back to searching for spirituality. I still have a ways to go, but I am feeling better already.
So, if you feel like you have worn yourself out and your mouse traps are exploding into a chain reaction, try Rolheiser’s book. It’s worth your time.
Thank you Jason and the other men in our group.