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Anchor House Week 20 - The Couch

Well, these last few weeks have been a “whirlwind”. We have had a banquet, the Giving Challenge, staffing changes at Anchor House, amazing volunteers who have headed north for summer, we’ve begun a website redesign, engaged in a process to consolidate years of data into one database, we launched a Youtube page, began to present weekly messages on that YouTube page, and we have had plenty of ships and seafarers in port. In the first four months of this year, we have served half as many meals to date as we did in the entirety of 2021. Anchor House is moving and shaking. 

During this “whirlwind”, I have let my blog posts slip. I think the last I published was in week 14 and this is now week 20. That's right, 20 weeks serving God at Anchor House. How time flies. Each week that passed whereI hadn’t written, I could come up with various reasons as to why. Sometimes, I’d say to myself, “I’ll write next week and get it back on track.” The next week would come and go with nothing written for the blog. I’d think, “Next week is the week.”

I think we all can associate with my “slip” in writing blogs. We all have at least one area of our lives we have let slip. Maybe it is with our diet or exercise. It could have to do with our daily reading of scripture or weekly church attendance. We have a way of getting “busy” and unconsciously prioritizing our lives. I don’t know about you, but facing the idea of something not being a priority, when I think it should be a priority, hurts. It hurts because it's an indicator that I have lost my way. 

When we lose our way we search for an external reason for this shift in behavior. It is easier to identify the “whirlwind” that caused us to fall off our path than it is to face our own inadequacies. We don’t want to admit that we had the time to do the activity, but we chose something else. We could have chosen to write instead of watching that show. We could have chosen to go to church instead of getting that extra hour of sleep. We could have chosen the salad over the double cheeseburger. We could have prioritized better.

We justify our actions based on deserving relaxation or rest time. We tell ourselves, the “whirlwind” took so much out of us that we needed, no deserved, a break. The Bible is clear about the importance of rest and it is not my intention to conflict with what it says. Rest is an important aspect to our physical, emotional, and spiritual health. But there is a difference between rest and letting priorities slip. 

In Collasians 3:23, Paul says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.” Yes rest matters, but work does too. Rest shouldn’t overshadow our work and vice versa. The Christian rapper NF sums it up well in Toby Mac's song “Til the Day I Die” when he says, “Say you doing work but you asking where the couch at.” He’s challenging our priorities. He’s challenging us to consider if we did our work with all of heart or were we distracted by what was to come. 

So as we each face our individual “whirlwinds”, consider whom you are working for and who you are glorifying with your work. As we prioritize, don’t forget there is a place and need for rest. However, rest shouldn’t overtake our need to glorify Christ through our actions. When we’re working, don't focus on that couch. When you get that time on the couch, don't worry about work. 

So, I'm off the couch and writing blogs again.

Be blessed and be a blessing,
Matt
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