Life is so unpredictable, and yet we attempt to predict it. I check the weather on my computer or phone at least three times a day (which is a good thing, since the forecast is always changing). I’m currently planning a trip for work and yesterday as I typed up my schedule I realize that I have left very little time for serendipity.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. … So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. [from 2 Corinthians 4]
It’s easy to lose heart when all you’re looking at is lists, calendars, and tasks. It makes us feel as though we are wasting away because our vision is necessarily myopic. We’re afraid that if we take even a minute to look up from what we’re doing we’ll lose our place and there’s no getting it back very easily. We have to stay aware and alert, on top of everything like Whack-A-Mole.
These are the things that are seen, the things that are right in front of our noses. But what about what is unseen? What does that even mean?
Being aware of the unseen is remembering that behind the lists, underneath the calendars, alongside the tasks are reasons that make us so focused. We have lists and tasks and calendars, because we know that without them we can forget something that’s truly important. And in the process, we sometimes forget something that’s truly important. I know. Makes your head spin, doesn’t it?
So what is truly important? What is the unseen?
The unseen is the adventure, the love, the people, the spirit. It is the thing that brings you life, not the thing that sucks the life out of you. It is moving forward, even with the lists, tasks, and calendars—not standing still.
The important thing is the journey, because you never know what’s around the next corner. We can’t plan for that, but we can be ready for it. Ready for the moment when the laundry doesn’t get done because you need to read a book or call up a friend. Ready for the moment when a co-worker wants to talk about something. Ready for the moment at the conference when, through all the long meetings, a wonderful connection is made, someone who will be a new friend. Ready for laughter, a meal, an invitation.
All of that adventure is hiding. Hiding among the lists, the tasks, the calendars. Hiding in plain sight, waiting to be discovered and unleashed.
We just have to be better about looking for it.
- Life as Adventure… The Rev. Melissa Bane Sevier
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithfuland kindle in them the fire of your love.
- Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
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