Your Kingdom Come

By Belinda



I passed these signs on a walk last week. The one on the ground says, "Maximum 50 Begins." It looks as though someone uprooted it and planted the new sign beside it saying, "Maximum 40." When I posted it on my photo blog last week and asked for ideas for captions, a blog friend suggested, "Slowing down." It seemed a perfect caption and analogy for my current goal in life!

Yesterday I had a vacation day at home and mid morning, after putting on some laundry and putting away the dishes from cell group the night before, I found a portion of leftover apple crumble in the fridge, warmed it up in the microwave, poured a steaming cup of black coffee and took them both into the next room where I planned to read, reflect and pray for a while.

There had been a snow fall during the night and the light of the sun shining dazzlingly in a clear blue sky, reflected from the snow into the room so brightly that I adjusted the horizontal blinds to a more gentle light. I opened the footstool in which I keep my bible, books, pens and reading glasses and took them out, managing to knock my coffee cup and spill some drops of coffee on the carpet in the process. I dropped tissues onto the dark spots and stood on them absorbing the coffee quickly, then, sitting down with the apple crumble, I began to read at the same time as lifting a spoonful of the crumble to my lips. As a piece of apple fell from the spoon onto the carpet, I recognized that paradoxically, I was multi-tasking during my "quiet time." There was no rush to do any of these things, nor any good reason to do more than one thing at a time.

I decided to stop and savour each thing individually instead of trying to do so many things at once. So I sat in the chair by the window and enjoyed the beautiful view, while relishing the flavour and texture of each morsel of the apple crisp. It was delicious.

The book we've been reading in cell group, Sabbath by Wayne Muller, has ideas at the end of each chapter for practice. The one at the end of the chapter I read that morning said to:

Slow your pace, interrupt your speed. Notice how willing you are to be stopped. Notice how it feels when you are.

In The Daily Office, I read a reflection, line by line, on the Lord's Prayer. The line that leaped out was, Your Kingdom Come. Peter Scazzero writes:

Lord, may your kingdom come, not mine, nor anyone else's! And may it come first in me and then to those around me. I open up every area of my life to your rule and activity. Father, help me see the mustard seeds of your kingdom all around me. Teach me to wait patiently for you.

Yes, may it be!