PLAYING CATCH UP !

We are on the go a lot. Home a day or so, then off again.  This is my fifth day following our last trip away from home.  I'm still trying to 'catch up' ... for a while, anyway.  That is an interesting phrase: catch up.  We use that phrase in numerous ways to express different circumstances.... such as:

Slow down so I can catch up with you.
All those late nights are beginning to catch up with me.'
Old age catches up with everyone in the end.
Gotta run, catch up with you later.

For me, it's catch up on laundry, housework, and even physical rest.  We Americans find it difficult to stop.  Stop the rat race.  Stop pressuring ourselves to do more, go more, have more....just a day or more of doing very little is foreign to many of us. 

Have you ever felt guilty if you are not always busy?  I read about seven deadly dangers of being too busy.   In that article,  I noticed among the seven points listed that we can rob ourselves of joy when we are overly busy.  Or, we can be unfruitful if we are busy with things that are unnecessary.  If you are not filled with joy, perhaps it's time to slow down and do as our GPS says, recalibrate.

John 15:11  clearly shows that Jesus intends for us to be full of joy.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

There are times when our lack of joy might be due to our own busy endeavors - and not because of the behaviors of those around us.  Perhaps it would be helpful to slow down and get caught up  on our relationship with the Lord.  Too much of the natural and not enough of the spiritual causes a drought and our joy river runs dry!  We end up parched and in time, can suffer dehydration.  Spiritual dehydration is just as damaging to our joy as physical dehydration.

Dehydration for the body is where the water content is below the value needed to function.  It can be a dangerous thing for human life.  Spiritual dehydration for the soul is where the spiritual content is below the value needed to function ...  it shows up in our lack of joy, peace, patience, righteousness, and faithfulness, to name a few.  

If severe dehydration can be a medical emergency, then can't our lack of joy be a spiritual emergency?  I think so !!  We function so much better when we are full of joy.  Jesus knew this when he said that he wanted us to be FULL of joy.   So what is the answer?   Play catch up !  Slow down and catch up !!  That's what I'm doing.  Guilt???   Nah.   I'm catching up so I can be ready to go again!