They Were Afraid of the Calm

January 31, 2022

From today’s reading…

They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there — the man who had had the legion in him — properly dressed and in his full senses, and they were afraid.” Mark 5:15

Fyodor Dostoevsky was probably inspired by today’s reading when he wrote “Notes from Underground.” (Spoiler alert: we are not rational beings and seem quite incapable of acting logically, even when it benefits us.)

“Shower him with all earthly blessings, drown him in happiness completely, over his head, so that only bubbles pop up on the surface of happiness, as on water; give him such economic satisfaction that he no longer has anything left to do at all except sleep, eat gingerbread, and worry about the noncessation of world history — and it is here, just here, that he, this man, out of sheer ingratitude, out of sheer lampoonery, will do something nasty.

“He will even risk his gingerbread, and wish on purpose for the most pernicious nonsense, the most non-economical meaninglessness, solely in order to mix into all this positive good sense his own pernicious fantastical element.”

We can’t leave good enough alone.

We’ll break a dish or a window or a relationship because we can’t stand the quiet, because in the quiet we must listen to our conscience, which is shaped—either well, poorly, or not at all—by how often and how well we’ve allowed (or not) God to shape it.

It’s why we run around answering the question, “How are you?” with the inevitable, “Whew. Busy. So busy.” while expecting a badge of honor, or at least a pat on the back. It’s why entrepreneurs throw “a lot of irons in the fire.”

It’s why we multi-task, which, by the way, is the art of doing two things poorly.

We’re scared of success more than we’re afraid of failure.

When we have a lot of irons in the fire and are busy, busy, busy, we have an excuse to fail, or at least to not be all that we can be.

Embrace the calm that comes from knowing Jesus.

Seek the quiet that comes from receiving His bread daily.

Welcome the properly dressed He sends your say who have their full senses.

Strive to become one of them, which is the only way to…

Stay the course.Keep the faith.Endure.

Now go sell something.