Stepping Off The Hamster Wheel

Stepping off the Hamster Wheel

“My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42

There is a great line in the classic novel Moby Dick. Sailors are rowing furiously while the whaler is racing frantically to catch the great whale. But there is one person in the boat who is not doing anything. He is just sitting there, quiet and still. It’s the harpooner, ready to take aim and throw his deadly dart. Melville writes: “To ensure the greatest efficiency in the dark, the harpoonists of this world must start to their feet out of idleness and not out of toil.”

Our culture has a problem with idle harpoonists—people who appear to be unproductive. We are more impressed with the dazzling display of the whirring hamster wheel: the busier the better. Many of us who might be excellent “harpoonists,” like Mary in today’s verse, get caught up in the relentless pace of Martha and so are never ready to use our gifts when needed most.

Why do we overcommit? It’s because of what we don’t want to face. We fear boredom—and running in high gear keeps us from being contemplative. We want to avoid certain thoughts and feelings—and being constantly on the go helps us do that. Being busy seems to give us license to slip out early or be absent altogether. But the great sin of busyness is its disruption of our relationships with each other and with God. As Eugene Peterson has said, “Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It is filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s actions. It is taking charge.”^a

Set aside a bit of time for quiet and stillness alone or together and enjoy the quiet connection that you experience as a result. Encourage each other to do the same with God—sitting in his presence, rather than taking charge of even the “task” of spending time with him.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.

—Allen Saunders

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