Everything is a little quiet around the Kwantlen Multifaith office this afternoon. My day has been spent answering emails, meeting with a student, doing a bit of reading, and still attempting to get some of the logistics of a new office figured out. This afternoon, though, as the tasks of the day draw to a close, I am confronted with the task of slowing down as the silence of empty afternoon halls creeps in around me. While still glancing through my inbox, I am suddenly pulled away from the noise of technology, of the bustle of both my inner and outer world.
I'm still quite new in this position. Regular programming hasn't started yet, I don't have lots of emails to follow up on, and yet its been too easy to fill my mind with a sort of frantic pace.
It's important to remember, now and always, that time is a gift. This summer especially, as my first season in this chaplaincy position, it is important to savor the slightly slower pace that has been granted to me instead of allowing my soul to be caught up in external activity.
We need to treasure and make use of the slower times in our lives, partially to prepare for the busyness of the future (and the Fall season of a university is always busy), but also to enjoy them for their own sake. In the slower moments of a day, a week, or a month we are being granted an opportunity to recall things that busyness does not allow for: we are invited into thanksgiving, into prayer, perhaps even into a chance to work on ourselves, challenging ourselves to reflect on those areas of our lives which require us to trust God and trust others. The Church calendar and liturgy works these moments in naturally, with a season like advent reminding us to wait, and the practice of the Lord's Supper recalling us to our shared humanity with the common loaf and cup.
But life itself can sometimes offer such liturgical or sacramental moments. Let's allow ourselves to be drawn into them from time to time.
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