On rest and being still

In my moments of quiet time I am coming to several realizations. There is a driveness about me. A fear, if you will, that somehow there won´t be enough time or that time is something that I can bend to my will. I must be in control. When I walk into Vila Andrade I am sometimes able to catch a glimpse of how absurd this thinking is. At 10 a.m. I see children carrying brown bags full of bread to their homes for breakfast. At that point I have already been awake for several hours but here time does not matter as much. When I simply greet the children or people I recognize instead of stopping to talk with them, not taking the time to be with them because I am already almost late. It is like there is a rebuke in my spirit. What is the greater thing? These people or being on time? All my reflexes fight such thinking "what will my boss say if I am late.....but I am helping by working at the church" and the list goes on.

Someone wise once said that hurry and busyness are the enemies of love. They are right. This of course drives the efficiency loving side of me crazy and I find that I still struggle with the event orientation to time that people have here. This past week with all its VBS busyness I had the most delicious moments of rest and stillness. How is this possible? Because I gave up control. I decided to accept whatever God brought my way that day. I still showed up on time (most days) but I did not worry and that made such a difference. I tried living inside a new time orientation and discovered a wonderful sense of freedom. I wouldn´t so much call it a cultural difference since there are pros and cons in different views of time; instead, I would call these moments brief visits into the rest of God. I hope I can learn to go there more often.

p.s. The picture is of the Japanese neighbourhood in São Paulo called Liberdade (Liberty).