Slowing Down

“And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”– Matthew 6:28-29 (NRSV)

What do you worry about? How has the kept you from noticing others things? What all do you think Jesus meant when he said, “Consider the lilies of the field?” Have you ever gone outside and considered a flower? What was it like?

When I was in my church’s youth group in high school, we use to go on an annual backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. One year my dad accompanied the group as an advisor. He was a good addition because he knows a lot about backpacking and staying safe in the wilderness.
All of us boys in the group always tried to make a competition out of the trip, trying to see who could get to the next campsite the fastest. While I was almost never the fasted, I tried to go as fast I could. My head would be down watching the trail in front of me. One foot plodding down in front of the other, step-by-step, huffing and puffing with the full weight of all the possessions I would require for a week bearing down upon me. It was work but by golly we got there quick, and we were always so proud of ourselves.
One day we got to the camp much quicker than my father who appeared a couple of hours after we arrived. Like any pride-filled boys we gave him all sorts of grief for taking so long. “Why were you so slow old man?” “What you can’t keep up with us athletic guys?” “If you took much more time we’d have to be getting ready to go again!”
My dad took it all with a smile and then replied, “I could have got here when you guys got here, but then I would not have seen the beautiful waterfalls, or the amazing fields of flowers, or have stopped to watch the water flow in that stream we passed, or took pictures of the tree line where it looks like God put his hand down and said, ‘Trees stop growing.’ I am sorry you guys missed all of that.”
Like I said, he knows a lot about backpacking, and I will never make the same mistake again.

A lot of times our priorities are all messed up. We are more concerned about keeping up with the Joneses, and what we are wearing, and getting to some place faster than everyone else so that we can be considered successful, all the while failing to consider the lilies of the field. Maybe we are stressed out these days because we believe we have so little time to notice how beautiful the world is. Let’s slow down and realize that life is a journey and not a destination. The journey is full of wonder, beauty, and joy we might miss if we keep looking at some destination we may never reach.

With hope and joy,
Garrett