Monday, April 16, 2007

The Onslaught of Busyness | Yann Martel

You may recognize the name Yann Martel from his well-known book The Life of Pi. I came across an interesting article by him on Saturday, although what interested me didn't have much to do with what he was writing about (Stephen Harper and arts funding - which is important, don't get me wrong). Here's what he wrote though:

"To read a book, one must be still. To watch a concert, a play, a movie, to look at a painting, one must be still. Religion, too, makes use of stillness, notably with prayer and meditation. Just gazing upon a still lake, upon a quiet winter scene - doesn't that lull us into contemplation? Life, it seems, favours moments of stillness to sppear on the edges of our perception and whisper to us, 'Here I am. What do you think?'

Then we become busy and the stillness vanishes, yet we hardly notice, because we fall so easily for the delusion of busyness, whereby what keeps us busy must be important, and the busier we are with it, the more important it must be. And so we work, work, work, rush, rush, rush. On occasion, we say to ourselves, panting, 'Gosh, life is racing by.' But that's not it at all, it's the contrary: Life is still. It is we who are racing by."

It made me recall Greg's challenge about God's call to Sabbath rest. What struck me in particular was how busyness is often linked to our worth. The busier we are, the more important we feel. What does God say to this? Any thoughts?

No comments: