Contrast

 November 17, 2022

It wouldn’t have been so noticeable if I hadn’t just gotten back from a week in Cuba. I woke up early (for me) at 5:00; my alarm was set for 5:15, but as long as I was awake, I figured I might as well get up. Our men’s Thursday prayer group meets at 6:00, so after brushing about 5” of snow from the truck, I drove over to the church to meet with my brothers for prayer.

At 10:00, Linda needed to be at church to prepare the room for her Healthy Bones exercise class, which meant I needed to have the driveway cleared before then, so when I got home at 7:30, after a quick breakfast, I fired up the tractor. For the next hour or so, I was pushing snow around. About 10:15, I picked up and delivered a couple of the women for her class, switched vehicles, and went home. 

Next, it was time to get the winter tires out from the back deck where they had been sitting all summer. Digging the jack out of a pile of junk that seriously needs to be dealt with, and I was ready for the next job. Linda got home, and switching tires was next on the agenda. It’s not a complicated job, but is one of my least favorite; and it needed to be done. By 2:00, it was.

2:30 found me on my way to my friend Harry’s house to pick him up so we could help move furniture for my daughter. A family was donating office furniture to Options Care Center, so about eight men gathered to load up a trailer full of filing cabinets, desks, chairs, etc. By 4:00 we were done, and Harry and I were on our way back home.

Linda was waiting with supper at 5:00, and finally I am sitting down to write.

Why do I bore you with such detail of the day’s activities? Because it’s such a contrast to my week in Cuba. Life is so much slower there. Breakfast at 8:00, a 10:00 meeting on Monday and Wednesday, 8:00 pm meetings Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with a memorial service on Thursday and seminars on Saturday. That sounds like a lot, but there was a lot of down time, which gave me time to work on my Spanish and simply relax. 

There has to be some sweet spot in between these two poles of activity, but I have yet to find it. I am grateful for the Biblical command to observe the Sabbath. We are commanded to work six days, but the seventh is for God, a day to reflect and remember what the work is all about. Two more days and Sunday’s coming. Until then, there is work to be done, a reason to rise and shine for Jesus. I’m tired now, but tomorrow is a new day; I want to make the most of it for the glory of God.