Tyranny of the Small

This morning I woke up with an addendum to what I wrote yesterday.

It's not that we're to do nothing. It's that it doesn't matter whether God puts us in a situation where we can do nothing or whether He gives us things to do. Our attitude of rest and calm and relaxation should be the same, regardless. God's plan doesn't depend on us doing things. Yet in the process of carrying out the tasks He does give us, we can slide into thinking that it does. We forget that it's His work that matters and begin to think way too highly of ourselves. We get caught up in the "importance" of what we're doing, even start to assign ourselves tasks He doesn't mean us to do at all.

The world barrages us with things to do and in that barrage we get swept up in the tyranny of the small, carried along from one task to the next to the next, with 20 more "shoulds" and "have-to's" and "want-to's" waiting in the wings. All those little tasks fill our thoughts and become our masters, while a subtle tension builds as we scurry to obey them. And peace flies out the window.

So today (Day 3 in my countdown to cast removal), as I started getting back on track with writing and housework (both long-neglected), I've tried to keep all this in mind. To stay relaxed, to stay focused on Him and not let everything get so blasted important. I've actually been typing with both hands until my cast gets too uncomfortable, whereupon I switch to the speech recognition feature. It's working well, though it seems to me I can type a lot faster than I can use the speech thing.

As for the content of the book... I spent today analyzing the cobbled scene I dictacted on Friday, and slowly getting back into the flow of ideas. As I've mentioned, I spent my time off doing lots of research, and I'm feeling good about the things I've learned and the ideas they've given me. I've also gotten to the point where I can see what needs to be changed and how that's going to head the plotline off in a stronger direction.

Grace,
Karen