I enjoy having a routine. I also enjoy going down through my to-do list with vigor. I often have to remind myself that people are more important than my ever present, ever expanding list of things to accomplish. From rising at 6:00am to hitting the pillow around 10:00pm on a good night, I find myself trying to knock out yet one more task to get ever closer to my many goals. And I know for a fact that most people are twice as busy as I am. Today in my college counseling class I read a number of statistics about how most people in our ever driven society are becoming increasingly type A personalities. It seemed interesting to note that these type A personalities are often the first ones to collapse under the weight of stress. Type B personalities apparently tend to be more people oriented while type A personalities are more driven but also more anxious and more stressed. As I was reading I realized that there must be a balance. We must be driven! We must seek to honor our Lord, for every waking moment is a gift from our Heavenly Father. Each day He gives us breath and causes our hearts to beat. Every second we, who have accepted the work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, are ever being given the gift of life in fullness of righteousness. We must use our days for God's glory, yet at the same time we must be willing to take a step back from the busyness of life to stop and have an afternoon cup of tea, to smell the roses. I smile with pleasure remembering a few days ago when I was making cookies with some friends and doing dishes one snowy afternoon. I kept thinking of all the things I need to be accomplishing, but my friend Lindsay was content to study the funny little shape of a bubble on her finger tip.
"Lindsay, you are easily amused, " I said with a teasing snicker. She expressed concern for the fact that she got so easily distracted.
"No Lindsay. You take time to stop and smell the roses. When you take time to see life as it really is, you can take in all the joys and simple blessings of life that God brings our way."
For me, afternoon tea is my time to stop and smell the roses, to set aside the many college lessons and dance classes and simply be. Simply taste the warmth and feel the rejuvenation of a day that my Lord and King has blessed me with. It makes me think of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. The perfect example of the type A versus type B personality. While there are good things about each personality type, it is important to remember that no matter what personality type you are, Jesus wishes for you to simply stop and be in His presence, stop and see His people as He sees them, and sometime just stop and have a cup of tea and look at a soap bubble
