A Life in Exile

Did the Lord ever say to you, “Stop being busy and just enjoy time with the person you love?”

He did that to me on Monday, when I realized that my youngest son would be home from college, but only for about 72 hours. What’s a mother to do?

I decided to skip church, take a day off work, and not bother with Facebook or my computer for an entire day. The result? I had a wonderful dinner with my family, laughed a lot, talked a lot and just had an all-around good day.

For those of us who are Martha more than Mary, not doing what we should do takes effort. I know, you Mary’s out there are not seeing what the big deal is, but it is hard for some of us to just play hookie and relax.

I first realized I was going against the grain of things, when I felt I had to explain to my boss in my time off request why I was asking for a day off. It was the longest run-on sentence.

I’m asking to take this comp day, because Nathan is coming home on Wednesday, and he’s leaving again on Friday for a mission trip to Oregon, so I really only have Thursday to spend with him, and I really want to.

Or, something like that.

Then, I realized the second sign I was going against my natural tendencies, when I looked down at my phone during our dinner on Wednesday night to see a panicked text from my pastor saying, “Are you OK, Carol? You didn’t come to prayer meeting tonight. I just want to make sure you’re OK.”

I responded about an hour later with another very long, run-on sentenced text.

Martha’s have to explain themselves a lot, it seems. People just expect us to be where we should be. I doubt other people get texts like that for missing Wednesday nights.

The final sign that I was not being normal was that my dear son asked me more than once, “What do you want to do today?” When I kept answering, “just be with you,” he said, “But I’m not used to having to make the decisions about what we do!” Yes, even in spending time with his mother, I’m obviously the one who makes the agenda.

No, not today. It was all about him, which meant I went to buy him work clothes for his summer internship, visited an antique store, a pawn shop and walked around the square eating ice cream.

I did nothing that I was supposed to do in these past 24-some hours, but I did what was important, and that’s all that matters.

Even Jesus understands and smiles.

I sure did. It was a good day.

Grace and Peace