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Good morning.

If there is one question that I can be sure about being asked today it is this 'are you busy?'

The expected answer is, 'well yes I am', because to fail to be busy is to commit a serious offence in the eyes of many.

And yet I am increasingly uncomfortable with this idea that busy is good; or the idea that we are busy to the extent to which you are important. Surely the significance of what we do, never mind what we are, can't be calculated by comparing the length of our to-do lists. 

The pressure is on, of course.  Whether it comes from inside us or outside,, whether we are trapped by personality or by a profession that requires more and more administration - and many of us are - the pressure is on to do fill every moment with tasks, and the word we use whether to boast or complain about it is 'busy'.

‘I am busy therefore I am’, we might think - not realizing the irony of our relentlessly speeding-up thought processes.

Sometimes it is good to be busy, and it can be fun to be active and productive or to push ourselves to the limit.  That's how we are in a crisis and when we get into the flow of an activity.  But we cannot live by crisis alone and, absorbing as flow can be, it is a necessarily limited and limiting approach to life.

Slow us down, O God, and give us this day the confidence to pace our lives in a natural and sustainable way. Open our eyes to the unexpected and inspiring that we may not only do what we should, but also be good company to all with whom we share this day.  Amen.