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Don’t confuse activity with intention.

Posted: Tue, May 14, 2019
Don’t confuse activity with intention. Don’t confuse busyness with purpose. Don’t confuse productivity with worth. Don’t confuse achievement with wisdom. Don’t confuse exhaustion with essence. A western missionary in West Africa wanted to bring medicine to a nearby tribe 50 miles away. He loved with a tribe whose custom was no one traveled alone so [...]

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski

Don’t confuse activity with intention. Don’t confuse busyness with purpose. Don’t confuse productivity with worth. Don’t confuse achievement with wisdom. Don’t confuse exhaustion with essence.
A western missionary in West Africa wanted to bring medicine to a nearby tribe 50 miles away. He loved with a tribe whose custom was no one traveled alone so the tribe’s chief and elders traveled with the missionary. They traveled 15 miles the first day and stopped for the night. They traveled another 15 miles the next day and stopped for the night. The next morning the missionary said to the chief, “If we push ourselves and go 20 miles today we will make it to the village in three days.” To the surprise of the missionary, the chief said, “No. today we will rest. We have been traveling fast. We need to let our souls catch up with our bodies.”
I just read an article from an expert about how to maximize my productivity. I’m exhausted from simply reading the article. What I need is to someone to remind me my worth is not attached to my productivity. I need someone to remind me self-care is not selfish and that as I extend grace to myself I replenish the reservoir of grace I can extend to others. I need someone to maximize my ability to take myself less seriously and play more.
How will you let your soul catch up with your body today?
Pour yourself a hot drink, make yourself comfortable, loosen your jaw, unclench your fist, slow and deepen your breath, open your heart, contemplate the word “Essence” and receive the gift of this Blessing of Rest by Jan Richardson –
“For a moment cease thinking about what comes next, what will you do, when you rise.
Let this blessing gather itself to you like the stillness that descends between your heartbeats, the silence that comes so briefly but with constancy in which your life depends.
Settle yourself into the quiet this blessing brings, the hand it lays upon your brow, the whispered word it breathes into your ear telling you all shall be well all shall be well and you can rest now.”