Decreasing
breadth
increases depth.
In his book, Sacred Year,
Michael
Yankoski comments that
a gallon
of water could cover a five mile area
if
stretched about a molecule thin.
But that
same gallon, if focused into a straw
about the
size of a human hair,
would reach
the center of the world,
four
thousand miles beneath our feet.
My life has
often felt like a multitude of droplets
stretching
across that five mile expanse.
All out busy with more responsibilities than hours,
I often
felt like I was running to cover
huge stretches of land, giving everything
I had to all that I did, but, in reality,
not as much as I wanted to any of it.
I didn't
know how to change any of it,
until it
all changed.
When everything changes around us,
it forces us to change as well.
It has taken a while to adjust to the shift;
it is hard to just stop moving at that kind of pace.
But the word
that I keep hearing more clearly
is the word
"depth."
Our culture
is obsessed with thinness,
not just
the physical kind,
but the
conditioned reality that comes
when we
stretch ourselves so thin and
focus on so
many things
that we lose the ability to focus.
We "care thinly" when spread thinly.
My
resolution has been to spend
more time
alone, quiet, listening.
I haven't been doing much writing lately
because
life has still been busy.
And maybe
not so much busy as thin.
I cannot
write out of a thin perspective.
I need
deep. And deep needs quiet.
But when I
look at facebook or instagram and
read great
quotes about being all you can be
and setting
goals and living your passion,
and living stronger, happier, and better,
I can feel
like I am doing nothing.
And if I am
not careful,
I can go
thin in a heartbeat.
Our
ultimate goal is fullness.
Jesus
talked about wells, not wide open spaces.
So, I want
to do less, stretch less, juggle less.
That takes
something akin to ADD medication.
It takes
prayer and quiet
and being
with Jesus.
And a
willingness to walk away from
the single
molecule five mile expanse
and towards the four
thousand mile deep life.
Increasing depth begins by
decreasing breadth.
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