One of the repercussions of
being confined to a hospital room after you have had suffered a heart attack is
that you get to listen to a parade of professionals remind you of how you go
into this pickle. The circumstances and the setting for the delivery of
such messages are ideal because, let’s face it, your body forces you mind to
pay attention after someone has been poking a wire around your heart.
The most inspiring and
difficult challenge for me came from Wendy Dion. Wendy’s “sermon”
delivered to me, a captive audience dressed for the occasion in my hospital
gown, was the importance of finding balance in my life. She summed it up
with a phrase something like this: “If you don’t make time to be well you have to
take time to be sick.” Boom! A “brick between the eyes” message.
She knew that I really wanted out of that hospital room so I could get back to
my life. Her message to me was pretty clear: make time in your life to be
well or you will be forced to take a lot of time dealing with being sick. And I
hate taking time to be sick. The next part resonated with me really well:
“you need to engage in some spiritual practices each week if your body and mind
are going to be in balance.” I can do that. In fact, people pay me to do
it!
But then came the right hook
out of nowhere: “You can’t work seven days a week and say your life is in
balance.” Pow! Kaboom! A direct blow to the solar plexus. And she had
corollaries to that bit of wisdom: “You can’t watch bad news seven days a week
and be in balance. You need to find outlets for service to others that
refocuses your attention.” Wendy of course was echoing ancient wisdom
here, but it is as relevant, and maybe more so, today than it was when Moses
and Jesus walked the earth. We need Sabbath-times in our lives. And
Sabbath isn’t doing “nothing”: it if refocused time, time focused not our
ourselves or on earning money or pleasing people; but time focused loving God
and loving our neighbor. So, I shutting off my laptop and going for a
walk. Why don’t you join me?
Will you join me this week in
trying to find that elusive balance in life? Physical exercise. Spiritual
exercise. “Me” time. “Others” time. Rest. Is your plate filled with
a healthy portion of each serving? Because when we live our lives out of
balance, eventually we will fall down and hurt ourselves. Thanks for the
sermon, Wendy!
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