Reeee-lax!

  I'm usually pretty good at saying no when I should, of not over-booking myself and trying to be fairly balanced.  Maybe this is just an excuse but I think that's why I was never a star student in graduate school.  I need to sleep (ask anyone in my family), I need to have fun and I need to have time to wind down and relax. I did well in grad-school, but having straight A's was not for me.  I was too busy getting engaged, planning a wedding and having fun to bother with all-nighters and a GPA that sparkled. 
  My best friend in California used to say, smiling as she poured a glass of Port, "Reeee-lax!"  She was soooo very good at relaxing.  She never got frazzled even with little kids running in and out of her house.  She just seemed able to take it all in stride.  Me, I would be twisted up inside with all of the noise, wondering if the kids were safe as they ran from house to house without a care in the world.  Reee-lax.  Relax...
   It is kind of interesting to me that the "boundary queen" as my sister so fondly calls me is not that relaxed and currently not so balanced.  I have gone from one project to another and have one looming ahead like a dark cloud in the distance.  It seems as though each day is filled with busyness and that the thought of going to the gym is just one more thing on my over-flowing plate.  I cannot remember for the life of me when I got off-kilter but I think it was when I volunteered to bring a big-name therapist to our city and then had to bring in the people to watch him work and to be worked on. It was impossible to relax for several weeks.  It was so worth it, but then there was another project and then more obligations.  Relax?
   In our Life Group on Sunday we talked about silence and the scripture about God not being in the earthquake or wind but in the silence.  It is one of my favorite Bible verses in Isaiah and actually in all of the Bible except for 11Corinthians chapter 4 (all of it).  The first is about the bigness of God and the second is about our frailty.  We are "treasures in jars of clay."  Breakable but still a treasure. 
   Balance, Silence, Frailty. Treasure. Humm.  I wonder if I am out of balance because I am not sitting in the silence with my Maker.  I wonder if I am off-kilter because I am not seeing myself as more frail than I am and in need of the Potter.  I wonder if when I am stressed out it may be because I have forgotten where my treasure lies, and then when I don't produce the way I think I should, I don't see that I am a treasure to the Invisible God.  Perhaps this is why silence is so important. 
   I don't think I am wondering anymore. It all seems to be crystal clear, at least for the moment.  Relax, indeed.