Did you all know that turkey puts you to sleep? I’m sure you did…we’ve all heard about the tryptophan in turkey that helps bring on sleep. In fact, i give a vitamin to my daughter that has a small amount of tryptophan in it to combat her insomnia. Well yesterday our turkey knocked me out cold. By the time the Student Ministries staff left the house I was beginning to see double. I was asleep before their cars hit the road at the end of our driveway. Only the persistence of a teenage girl who needed a new dress managed to pull me from sleep. Looking back on our previous holidays, we always use an organic turkey. I’m wondering if our normal organic turkeys have less tryptophan?
So today was spent in, essentially, a hangover. I shuffled from one spot to another, never fully engaging in my day. My last stop was at “The Office”, or my local Barnes and Noble. I sipped a coffee and read a new book and essentially began to wake up: at 2:30 pm.
In that haze, however, I discovered something about myself and the God I serve. I felt guilty sitting there sipping and reading. This is NOT the season for sitting. This is the season for doing, right? Holidays are stressful, right? We run from one thing to the next. There are hurting people who find themselves adrift during the holidays. Any well-adjusted kingdom dweller should be up and about the Father’s business. My mind was flitting from one need to another, all needs I knew of and knew I could help with.
Then God tapped me on the shoulder. “Would you mind just sitting here with me for a bit?”
Wow. It came over me all at once how seldom I’ve allowed myself to just sit and enjoy the kingdom recently. My soul has missed that stillness, and I think my God has missed that companionship. Oddly, I was reading a book about the “divine hours” that Benedictine Monks keep, a schedule that works in time for sleep, prayer, work and community. All of it fits in a day.
As I head into this next season I need to remind myself that all of the work for me to do is laid in front of me by the King of the kingdom. He alone knows what I can do for him, and he doesn’t want me to work myself out of balance. Health, sleep, study, reading…these are important to my overall being. If I can’t have those things, I can’t be who he created me to be. That’s so true especially when it comes to the reading. If I am on the run 24/7 and don’t take time to read (how indulgent, I reason, to read when people need my physical help), then I can’t be who he made me to be. I wither without that connection to God’s creative mind.
Guess what? I made it through the rest of my day. Dinner got made for my elderly mom, my daughter got driven to worship night, I visited with my neighbor on the back porch for a few moments. It all got done. And it got done by a girl whose soul was nurtured by those few moments of companionship at a table for one in Barnes and Noble.
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I never knew that about turkey. Serious. I think a message of “sit here and read some more and just hang out” is about the ideal word! My pastor preached a couple of months back about the pace of God being 3 miles per hour because we know He walks with us and so that’s walking pace. (a person then corrected Him to point out that God is also light and so must travel at the speed of light………) I love the idea of a 3mph life, I’ve had a manic week with work and I just keep coming back to that same challenge – can I choose to slow down my life to 3mph? It’s good to have these slower times and to revel in them – I think it’s a little bit of the sabbath comment. The more I learn of sabbath, the more I see the positives of it rather than just stop doing. However, as you say, we can and should experience that slowness and rest on a even more regular basis. Thanks for the story!