Slow Down

 

God of endless choices, sometimes our lives feel as overwhelming as trying to navigate the cereal aisle at the store.  Good lord, do I need over a hundred boxes for breakfast?  Sometimes, O God, I can make all choices feel like life-or-death decisions.  What if I write an awful morning meditation that doesn’t get “enough” likes?  What if I lose my temper and say something I instantly regret?  What if I falter as a husband and father and pastor?  We live in a world of false urgency with everyone wanting to play the part of “Mordecai” in the stage production of our life.  Good Lord, help!  Help me name and notice which decisions are important and which ones I have surrounded with anxiety and false pressure.  Help me name and notice why some decisions feel bigger because they impact others more than myself.  Help me quiet the voices that shout at me that I have to act now or else.  Amid a world that spins faster than the tilt-a-whirl at the State Fair, God, slow me down to Your pace.  Grant me Your spaciousness.  Be with me in the moments when I am exhausted, overwhelmed, and underslept because my problems keep waking me up at 3 a.m. to chat.  God, You are here in such a time as this.  I am here.  We are here together.  Help me see that others are also in this space, that there are caring people like Mordecai who truly desire to share Your unconditional and unceasing love.  Let me rest in a promise and pace that is guided by You. Remind me that wherever I go, whatever I do, and whoever I am, Your love and grace will not let me know.  May I breathe in this truth now and in the days to come, for such a time as this.  Amen.