When You Swim Against the Current

I  was talking with a friend recently, and our conversation turned to reflections on how quickly time passes.  I shared a quote with my friend that I'd heard from somewhere--a quote I've shared in similar conversations:

"The days are long, but the years are short." 

Afterward, I got to thinking about that quote, and what it means to me.  It's a simple and yet profound idea, isn't it? 

Our days get filled with tasks and appointments---places we have to be, people we need to meet. We often schedule ourselves with very little margin, and then wonder why we are exhausted, stressed and overwhelmed. 

And then there's this...

I don't know about you, but I often find myself at the end of a long day feeling as though there is more left undone than done.  Perhaps you feel the same. 

Maybe what you feel is a sense that if you'd only had more time in your day, you could have done more, which is ridiculous because you went from one thing to another all day long with not a lot of moments for rest in between. 

Then one day you look at the calendar and realize that it's nearly Thanksgiving and then Christmas... and you think to yourself:  "Wasn't it just summer?" 

Fr. Richard Rohr has written extensively about the way we struggle with our busyness obsessions, and foolish desires for control.  

When Rohr addresses these issues, he frequently uses the imagery of God as a River that is moving us all toward the truest versions of ourselves--if only we would let God.  

But when we struggle against the River's flow, when we strive to be outside of it, swim against it, or try to control the direction of it... we exhaust ourselves with our efforts to do it all on our own.  

Rohr writes that the only way to be free of this is to surrender:  

Faith does not need to push the river precisely because it is able to trust that there is a river--and you are already in it.

If you have been swimming against the flow, tiring yourself out... If you feel as though you are leaving more of your life undone than done... If you are weary... If you are tired of feeling like your life is simply passing you by... 

May you find the courage to surrender and let the River take you.  May you trust that where the current is taking you is precisely where you need to be going.  May you find rest. 

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.