When I asked our PSW if she had gone out on New Year’s Eve, she replied “No’. Then she went on to explain that the PSWs were all on ‘High Alert’ because if things could go wrong, New Year’s Eve was a prime time for them to do so.
The phrase caught my attention because it was an apt way of explaining my life for the last 2+ months. Six times over that period we have had to drop whatever we were doing, or hoped to be doing, and make our way down to the ER at Toronto General Hospital. Yes, ‘high alert’ covered that way of living.
But here’s the thing. What if we, as followers of Jesus, are actually called on to live in ‘high alert’ 24/7? What if we have become so complacent, so conscious of what society expects from us that we have forgotten the radical nature of Jesus’ teachings. If we really want to live out the basic premise of Golden Rule, to actually do good to those that hate us, to help those who need help no matter who they are, then we too are being called to live every moment of our life on ‘high alert’. When the disciples were sent out to neighbouring towns to spread the gospel, their instructions were to gauge the response they were getting. They were expected to be constantly aware of what was going on and to be ready to move on if necessary. To be on ‘high alert’.
Now here’s the catch! As I have found out over the past 2+ months, this is a really hard way to live. YOU HAVE NO CONTROL .... absolutely none. Yes, you can make plans, but you have no control from one minute to the next if they are going to happen. I thought that I had given up needing to have control of my life. But I have learned that that was just a fallacy, that in actual fact, I find not having some degree of control very difficult to live with. And so the challenge to live life in the moment, being ready to accept whatever comes my way is not an easy one. But it is the way ahead…
Comments
Post a Comment