As an analogy, Peterson referred to the harpooner in the novel Moby Dick, quoting from Herman Melville’s commentary on harpooning: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.” Throughout the chaos of chasing the whale across the seas, the harpooner remained still, not caught up in all the activities of the ship, knowing that his time would come to practice his craft, and in order to be accurate he must be still. In reading this I immediately thought of both Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God” and Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.” As I reflect on this past month of so much ministry activity, I wonder at how the Lord was teaching me to focus and minister from a place of still and quiet trust even amidst the chaos of so many things to do. At the beginning of the month I thought He was telling me to slow down, and now I am seeing that it is more a matter of the habits of my heart and intentionality in my schedule than it is about how filled my week is with activities. Now that things have slowed down, my prayer is that I will be busy practicing stillness before the Lord and focused “harpooning” throughout the days as I live out my calling here in Oklahoma.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Becoming "Unbusy"
At the beginning of the month I was reading a book by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message paraphrase of the Bible) called The Contemplative Pastor. In it Peterson talks about the need to clarify the role of a pastor with three adjectives: unbusy, subversive, and apocalyptic. Peterson takes much of the rest of the book to unpack those adjectives, so I won’t attempt that for you, but I will describe which one has been on my mind the most, the “unbusy” pastor. In the past couple of years I have become aware of my tendency to get busy doing stuff, especially ministry stuff, so that deep relationship with God and others moves to the periphery of my heart, mind, and schedule. In defining the “unbusy” pastor, Peterson made some observations that I really identified with. He said that often we are busy, not because we are selfless and noble, but because we are vain and lazy. We subconsciously think that we need to have a hand in everything around us, and we do not expend the mental and spiritual energy to focus on the things that God has called us to, saying “no” to the others. 
As an analogy, Peterson referred to the harpooner in the novel Moby Dick, quoting from Herman Melville’s commentary on harpooning: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.” Throughout the chaos of chasing the whale across the seas, the harpooner remained still, not caught up in all the activities of the ship, knowing that his time would come to practice his craft, and in order to be accurate he must be still. In reading this I immediately thought of both Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God” and Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.” As I reflect on this past month of so much ministry activity, I wonder at how the Lord was teaching me to focus and minister from a place of still and quiet trust even amidst the chaos of so many things to do. At the beginning of the month I thought He was telling me to slow down, and now I am seeing that it is more a matter of the habits of my heart and intentionality in my schedule than it is about how filled my week is with activities. Now that things have slowed down, my prayer is that I will be busy practicing stillness before the Lord and focused “harpooning” throughout the days as I live out my calling here in Oklahoma.
As an analogy, Peterson referred to the harpooner in the novel Moby Dick, quoting from Herman Melville’s commentary on harpooning: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet out of idleness, and not out of toil.” Throughout the chaos of chasing the whale across the seas, the harpooner remained still, not caught up in all the activities of the ship, knowing that his time would come to practice his craft, and in order to be accurate he must be still. In reading this I immediately thought of both Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God” and Isaiah 30:15, “In repentance and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and trust is your strength.” As I reflect on this past month of so much ministry activity, I wonder at how the Lord was teaching me to focus and minister from a place of still and quiet trust even amidst the chaos of so many things to do. At the beginning of the month I thought He was telling me to slow down, and now I am seeing that it is more a matter of the habits of my heart and intentionality in my schedule than it is about how filled my week is with activities. Now that things have slowed down, my prayer is that I will be busy practicing stillness before the Lord and focused “harpooning” throughout the days as I live out my calling here in Oklahoma.
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3 comments:
Good post, Kerby. A provocative question for us to consider:
How many pastors do we know who are as interruptible as Jesus was, particularly by those considered most undesirable by society?
Hey Ramon! It is provocative, and it would be even more powerful if the entire community were as available and engaged in the world around them like Jesus was.
The interesting thing about Peterson's book is that it is from the perspective of a pastor and his congregation, but in the context of a leadership team of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers who help guide and develop everyone else with those gifts, the entire community would be mobilized to be available and engaged in a transformative way in the lives of those around them. It is no wonder that modern pastors and church planters get burned out and have no time for relationships with the marginalized since they are trying to be all the gifts all of the time!
nice visual ;)
not that you have to read my blog, but I had a post recently regarding this (mine's a better title than yours though- jk :P)
but a verse came to me while I was struggling:
Psalm 37:7 … "Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act."
I notice you do a once a month trend regarding blogging, and not to keep you busy, but I encourage you as your sister to continue sharing as God guides you!
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