Slow Down!

It amazes me how much at ease even very small children are with technology. I’m used to our older grandchildren doing things quicker than I can. What shook me was the speed at which our then two-year-old granddaughter learned how to drag images across the screen to match them with others of the same colour.

We have become used to expecting things to be done quickly and I blame digital watches for that. Until the 1980s we used phrases like ‘the back of ten’ for anything from ten till quarter past. Then we discovered 10.08 or 10.13. My mother never said 10.13 in her life! It would have been ‘around the quarter.’

But are we living too quickly? In the Bible God says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ Do we ever stop long enough to think about God and to spend time in his company? (see Psalm 46:10)

Rest

In the spring of life,

youthful, vigorous

days and diaries full,

‘Come apart,’ our Lord says,

‘and rest awhile.’

In the summer of life,

responsible, dependable,

mortgaged to the hilt,

‘Come apart,’ our Lord says,

‘and rest awhile.’

In the autumn of life,

committed, involved,

yet strangely free,

‘Come apart,’ our Master says,

‘And rest awhile.’

In the winter of life,

As days grow short

And life’s evening falls,

‘Come,’ says our Best-beloved

‘And rest.’

Written for the Scottish Fellowship of Christian Writers and used by kind permission.