Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
Pablo Picasso
There is a passage from the pages of the past–in the bible, in the forth chapter of the book of Matthew–that tells a most inspiring story, of how the devil sought to tempt Jesus into taking the path that leads straight to hell.
The temptation came at the ripe time, as Jesus–after fasting for forty days and forty nights–was probably at his weakest. But even though Jesus was not at his strongest, the devils endeavors at tempting Jesus can be likened to those of a fool flapping their arms so they can fly, utterly and uselessly fruitless.
Whether you’re a God-fearing Christian who never misses church or not, I think you will find golden nuggets of value in this tale if you but look at it closely.
To me the story is a metaphor for life that serves as motivation for me not to let myself be derailed by distractions when I set my mind to achieving something.
With social media a tap of the finger away, and app notifications but a beep away, we live in a world were there are distractions at every corner, so it’s not easy to focus our attention on one thing.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ll unlock my phone with the intent of responding to a text, but instead I’ll find myself seven videos deep into Jason Silva’s Shots of Awe. Now, there’s certainly no problem in watching Jason Silva’s inspiring videos, what’s amiss is that I was supposed to be replying to a text and I let myself get sidetracked.
I know I lack the level of spiritual strength possessed by the Son of God, so I’ll probably come undone here and there, but I will do my best to be strong and not let myself be seduced into straying from the path of my purpose.
What of you?
Will you do like Jesus and be strong in the face of temptations?
Or will you give into your weakness and let yourself be swayed from the path you were on by distractions?
Don’t be shy to let me know in the comment section below, I’ll be elated to hear from you.
I am struggling with a desire to rest, when I should be hard at getting things done. I have sold myself the story that if I could just *fully* rest – maybe for a few days, a few weeks – then I would get tired of resting (at some point), and want to get back to the business of getting things done. Instead, I half-rest, and things get done slowly, and I accumulate the resulting guilt. Half-measures.
I wonder if, in the Christian tradition (or any other), there is the permission to properly and fully rest, while we are still here – or if we’re meant to see rest as the “devil’s work”, something that can wait until after we’re gone?
Thank you for your thoughtful posts!
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Hi Mike…I completely understand your struggle, i used to have the same issue.
Compared to working resting is much easier–and usually more fun…given a chance not to work, I’ll most definitely take it, and never work a day in my life.
But things aren’t so easy, we have to work else things won’t get done. How I overcame my desire to rest is I started rewarding myself–no matter how little–for working.
In the Christian sense, I don’t think rest is the “devil’s work”, else God would not have rested on the seventh day. The problem arises when we rest without doing any work. In fact, can we really say one is resting if they haven’t worked at all?
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And this then brings up the definition of work. Sometimes the things one’s not paid to do by others is still work – sometimes in might be a blog post, or giving a friend a drive into town, or feeding one’s mind with new ideas that might lead them in better directions.
I suppose what I sometimes want is a break from the need to survive – to work for survival. Voiced in this way of course, I can see that it might be an unreasonable expectation to want to rest from the business of surviving, as long as a person is still alive 🙂
Thank you for you writing!
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Yea, it might be unreasonable expectating to rest from the business of survival, but I don’t know anyone, who given that choice, wouldn’t take it.
Personally, I’d rather work by feeding my mind with fresh ideas, and writing a blog post, or play chess even though they don’t pay bills and put food on the table.
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