Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind. Ecclesiastes 4:6
For many years, I thought multi-tasking was one of my gifts. The ability to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously was great. I could listen, plan, organize, and map out tomorrow's schedule all while working on dinner for the family. During that time, it drove me insane when my other half would repeatedly tell me that I had to wait for him to finish something he was working on before he could answer my question or help me with something. This made no sense to me, why couldn't he just look really quick and give me an answer or take a second to help?
In these moments, I struggled to understand why he was unable to take care of more than one thing at a time. I mean, I was juggling everything else! Well, the truth is, I wasn't doing such a good job of multi-tasking myself. Oh, don't get me wrong, I thought I was getting it all done. It felt like I was doing great... I was checking all the boxes and signing up or agreeing to take on more and more. Until the day that I wasn't!
The day when one of the many plates I was juggling came crashing to the ground which led to a cascade of things falling. It was just one little thing, surely, I could get them all going again, but somehow it all started feeling like too much. I started accessing all the things and all the people in my life and realized that I was checking off a lot of boxes on the to-do list but wasn't truly giving any of the people in my life my full attention. I was continuously running from one thing to the next or working on one project while I was thinking about the next three. I was nodding and saying, "Uh-huh" as my children and/or spouse shared their day with me but minutes later, I was unable to remember what they had said.
Then I heard someone say, "Multi-tasking means you are not fully present to anyone or anything. A truer description is being mostly absent." (speaker unknown) In my defensive nature, I thought that was not really true, but when this multi-tasker paused and took a hard look at myself, I discovered that it was true. In my rush or need to get more and more done, I failed to see all the ways I was not stopping to give my full attention to those around me. I lost sight of the fact that the project could have been much better if I had given it my full attention rather than short moments in the midst of everything else.
Sadly, for us multi-taskers, this can mean that while we may have been physically present, we were never fully present.
I knew that the Lord had sent this word to me. Not only was He showing me that I couldn't keep juggling all the things, but the Lord was also lovingly showing me that I was missing out on the ones in front of me without even realizing it. When we look at the example Jesus set for us, we see that He always made time for the one. He didn't focus on the other things going on or what others were grumbling about at the moment.
Scripture shows us that Jesus told His disciples that, "He must needs go to Samaria" (John 4). That day as He traveled to Galilee, He paused for the woman at the well. This Samaritan woman, who no other Jew would have spoken to, received Jesus' full attention. The man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5) was among many waiting on a healing but Jesus focused on him and gave him His full attention. The woman with the issue of blood was in the midst of a crowd when she touched the hem of His garment, but Jesus knew she had touched Him and took the time in the middle of going to heal Jarius's daughter to make sure she knew that He counted her as a daughter (Matthew 5). Then Jesus focused on Jarius and went and restored life to his daughter.
I wonder if Martha believed herself to be a multi-tasker. What if she thought to herself, "I can hear Jesus speaking and teaching while I cook, serve, and prepare the house! Why can't Mary?" Yet, we learn that in that moment, Jesus lets Martha know that her focus was not where it should have been. She was missing the ONE. (Luke 10:38-42)
Time and time again, Jesus demonstrated the practice of being fully present. Scripture even shows us that He went off early in the morning to have one on one time with the Father. (Mark 1:35) He made time to pray and be with God. If we aren't careful, even our time in the Word can become part of our getting it done rather than our privilege to just be with the Saviour.
Today, I am working on being present in the moment, making time to focus on one person or thing at a time. Learning to give my full attention in each moment. Now, I haven't got this down perfectly, my mind still tends to roam to the next thing but now I am more aware of when I lose sight of the present and ask the LORD to redirect me back to the purpose of now.
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