Shade Tree Wisdom 5/14/2012

           There are several cannas growing in our back yard. Right now they are in full bloom, and I said to my wife, “Look, the poet writes of them, as ‘born to blush unseen’.” (Thomas Grey “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”)

          That, I think, results when we are always rushing to get things done. We brag about multitasking to get more things done. But studies have shown that by multitasking we never get to the real bottom of things, nor do we fully understand what it is we are trying to understand or do.

          So, we over schedule our days, rush through meals, or grab a sandwich from a drive through, drive impatiently, and wonder why there is no joy in our lives, for we take no time to settle back and being satisfied with a job well and truly done. No real feeling of having done anything with our time because we still see the schedule filled with things.

          May I ask you to stop and read Psalm 1. No, not as a multitask. Just slowly read the 6 verses. Do you see any hint of haste, of hurry, of getting it out of the way? Verse 2 says what? That the reader “delights in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night”.  Ever try that? Stop and meditate? What is it saying? What does it mean for me this moment? Why are the words that way, and why are they at the start of the psalmery?           

          Here there is no hint of frenzy or haste, Instead, he enjoys God’s words, and the result, a fruitful life, a well-fed soul.

          Isaiah had written, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect pace whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusts in Thee.”, Is. 26,3 Meditate on that truth when the clanging of the noisy world in which we live seems to get too much to bear. He will keep us “In Perfect Peace”. What a rich promise.

GPD 5/14/12