Day 20—Time for self
In his book Soul Keeping, John Ortberg quotes Dallas Willard as saying, “Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
And yet that’s all we do—hurry.
He said, “The most important thing in your life is not what you do; it’s who you become.”
I love Ortberg’s book. I bought it a few years ago and feel like I devoured it in a single sitting. Its message seemed so desperately needed: If your soul is healthy, he said, no external circumstance can destroy your life. If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life.
“We live on the planet of lost souls. That is the human problem.”
Lost souls, lost selves, yet we make no time for anything close to “soul keeping.”
We see it as an indulgence, optional, selfish, but what if it’s anything but selfish? What if it’s actually the opposite of that, what if it’s our responsibility?
If we’re no longer lost, then we know where we are, who we are, and what we need to do. If we’re no longer lost, then we can no longer shirk or dodge or avoid.
We have to be the better version of ourselves more often than not, in that case, because we know better. We have to do our work, because we know it’s ours to do.
Maybe we avoid time for self, because we can’t bear the responsibility.
Today’s quote
“You are ultimately destined to discover your power and accept its responsibilities, but how and when you achieve these, in this incarnation or the future, is what makes each lifetime the greatest adventure of all.”
— Mike Dooley, Life on Earth