A Healing Moment - Life is in the BEING, Not in the DOING by Donna L. Watkins - The Herbs Place

Life is in the ‘BEING’ — Not in the ‘DOING’
by Donna L. Watkins

Are you tired of all the DOING?

Wouldn’t you like a little bit of time just to BE you?

Life is in the BEING….not in the DOING. We mentally agree to that with a huff and a puff and a rebuttal of, "Yeah, but you should see my schedule!"

Never have enough time? Always running from task to task? Desiring to scream, "Stop! I want to get off!" but can’t find your voice – or the time to do it?

You can schedule time for you! You are in charge of the schedule you make and there is time in every day for you, if you’ll reevaluate life! What do you believe you’re here for? To do? To accomplish? To complete tasks? To ‘get it all done’ — only to find that most of it needs to be redone again? What’s driving you?

If you’re really tired of it all — and I mean really — you can change your life! Driven people usually believe it’s the people around them that require their busyness, but if we look inside, the deep desire is to be noticed and accepted or approved. Why would you ruin your health without something driving you to do so? It’s not common sense to burn yourself out. Change can come but it won’t be overnight.

You must first realize that your life is not about what you do! I believe we were created to fellowship with our God and the world He created for us. The world has become a rat race of who does the most and who does it best. Do you have conversations with people where you verbally recite the list of things you did the day before? Or have you done it as an answer to a question from somebody who wants you to do something else? The first thing we have to realize is that life will go on without us. That is beyond some people’s imaginations. We tend to think everything will fall apart if we’re not working the schedule.

Sit down and take an inventory. Write down every task you do – daily, weekly, and monthly. Now that you’ve got your list, don’t let pride take over. It will look like it’s impossible for one person to really do all of that!

So, instead of pride….how about a good dose of remorse? You’ll get a good start on that when you make your second list.

Write down everything that you ‘don’t have time to do’ that you would like to do. Include in that the things your family would put on that list — after all, why bother to have a family, if you don’t want to share life with them? Also list the really important stuff that you think would make life worthwhile.

Now look at the two lists. Pretend that you just moved out of the country and you are going to get a fresh start on deciding what you want your life to include. You’ll have to picture yourself out of the country, knowing nobody yet, because we pressure ourselves into doing all kinds of things because of what ‘somebody’ might think or want.

Circle the things from either list that would make up a "My Life Is….." list.

Now that you can see all the things that you really don’t want to be doing (the items that are not circled), how about scheduling a plan to get rid of those tasks or to delegate them to somebody else. You can adopt a frugal lifestyle which would allow you to pay somebody to do the necessary things that you might not really want to do (i.e. cleaning, laundry, yard work). With a clear mind and some time spent gleaning frugal ideas, you can go a long way towards what you consider real life to be. You can start gathering ideas on www.TheFrugalLife.com site and forum.

It is okay to say "No." You may be the spark that lights somebody else’s attempts at being who they really want to be also. Lead by example. Begin to simplify your life. In doing so, you may shuffle around a few friends. Those who still can’t believe it can be done, or those who believe that what they do is who they are, will flee. As you change, you will draw unto yourself those who are on the path back to simplicity….those who have a little more peace than you do….those who seem to have found what life is really all about. If you’re ready to head down this path, I wouldn’t doubt that you can think of somebody that’s been led into your path of life to show you there is a better way. Grab hold of their hand and let them take you down another road to a place that doesn’t spin and sway from hurry, scurry and worry.

We really are not indispensable. Take hold of your life and schedule Peace and Joy instead of Hurry and Worry…..and imagine what it will do for those around you?

The world will still be okay if you take time to find out who you are and what you’ve been created for. We often miss our destiny and purpose in life because we get caught up in the "Tyranny of the Urgent." Back off and take charge and decide to be somebody different. Remember that not once in the Bible will you find mentioned that Jesus ever hurried, yet look at the awesome responsibility He had and the short time frame to work with.

Separate yourself and be who you were designed to be….and the first role of that design is to fellowship with God. Adam walked in the Garden with God. Noah walked with God. David was a man after God’s own heart. Be a person who knows the Lord. If you plan to spend eternity with Him, why not become intimate now?

This is from "Utmost for His Highest," by Oswald Chambers: "The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God. Let everything else – work, clothes, food, everything on earth – go by the board, saving that one thing. The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God. We have to maintain ourselves in the place of beholding, keeping the life absolutely spiritual all through. Let other things come and go as they may, let other people criticize as they will, but never allow anything to obscure the life that is hid with Christ in God. Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him. It is the one thing that is apt to fluctuate but it ought not to. The severest discipline of a Christian’s life is to learn how to keep "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord."

Martha Washington has been dead for 200 years, but somebody is still dusting her house. You do not have to be responsible for everything!