Multiverse

We live in a world that expects us to multi-task, to always be doing more than one thing at a time. To be answering work emails and answering phones and shuffling papers. To be driving and texting. (That's illegal where I live, but it doesn't stop anyone.) To be exercising and listening to an audio book. I'll confess and say that at times, I am quite adept at washing the dishes while I am cooking and making more dirty dishes. We are being taught that simply doing one thing at a time is not enough. 

That's a discussion in and of itself, and we'll probably have it one day this week. 

But what sparked me to start to write this reflection was the realization that the world doesn't just expect us to multi-task any more; it's asking us to multi-prioritize. It's asking us not just to do more things at once, but to place an emphasis on more than one thing at a time. To experience, to honor, to value, to celebrate more than one thing at a time. 

I was struck by this on Mother's Day. Specifically, I was struck by the number of mothers on my social media feed who were posting about the activities their kids had on Mother's Day - ball games, recitals, concerts, contests, etc. 

I have written before about how the world has been coming for our Sundays. About how sports leagues are intentionally scheduling on Sundays and families are choosing between sports and church, often choosing sports while trying to tell their kids with their words how important church is...while showing them that sports are actually more important. The world has convinced us it is okay to forsake meeting together if we have something more fun to do, something we've committed to, something we've paid for or otherwise invested in. (Never mind, of course, that we were supposed to have committed to and invested in the church first and foremost.) 

But on Mother's Day, I saw so many of my friends being mothers - taking their kids here and there, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, and squeezing in a real quick breakfast or a few seconds to open the card their kid made them. 

And it just struck me what the world is doing. 

The world has gotten so busy, so fast, so full of itself that we used to take a whole day to celebrate mom and to let her relax and now, she gets a couple of hours and then we fill the rest of the day with other priorities. Honestly, she's lucky if she even gets a couple of hours. She gets a moment, then it's gone, then it's back to business as usual because the world doesn't stop any more. 

And when the world doesn't stop, it doesn't want you to stop, either. It wants you to squeeze in as much as you can and it tries to tell you that it's still meaningful...it's just meaningful with other things that are also meaningful. 

And all of a sudden, you're not just multi-tasking, you're trying to multi-prioritize and honestly, friends, you can't. You cannot fully appreciate a moment that you're trying to squeeze in before the next one. 

You cannot serve both God and mammon. 

It's not possible. 

It's a tension I wrestle with quite often, as I make deliberate decisions to avoid the traps the world is setting. But it broke my heart to see it play out so powerfully on a day we set aside to love someone who means so much to us. Are we really so busy that we can't even take a single day - a whole day - to just stop and love someone? Truly love someone? Are our schedules and our things and our commitments and our investments and our activities and our opportunities that important? 

The truth is....