Extreme Jenga
Yesterday I shared our story of delay at the Washington football game. Delays may be hard, but they do often accompany opportunities if you know how to look. In this case, there was an abundance of opportunity for "content discovery". So many meaningful moments as we waited for the game to begin again.After standing in the concourse for some time, I started laughing. Pointing toward the area between us and the concession stands was a garbage can. In true Northwest fashion it wasn't just a garbage can. It was neatly divided into "recycle" and "compost". Take a look at the result of the delay in the picture above.Now, I'm no expert, but I don't think the people have adequately sorted items into their proper containers. What has happened in actuality is the most extreme game of Jenga I have ever witnessed.Now, Husky stadium seats just over seventy thousand people. On this night, before the delay pushed everyone into the concourse, I would guess there was closer to forty thousand.I feel like it is a safe assumption to believe these cans normally do not become games of skill. So what was different?On a normal day, people buy concessions, go sit down, then eat. Sometime later, they will either bring the garbage out when they need to use a restroom (or buy more concessions if they have any money left). And of course some people simply leave their garbage where they sit because their momma never taught them to pick up after themselves. The important piece in all of this is time. People come and go in a spaced out fashion.This night was different. Everyone was crowded in the same space. Buying, eating, and throwing away standing in the space. Aside from the speed of garbage production, there was also no room for the stadium staff to come through and empty the cans. No time and no space, so the garbage piles up.In order to be clean, the concourse needed margin.At the end of last week I felt a bit like that can. One urgent thing leading to another with little margin of time or space. And the garbage piles up. The heart and mind becoming a game of dexterity and skill to keep the garbage from falling out on those around me.God gives me encouragement in the midst of this. Not that he can keep all my garbage together. Rather, that he designed me to operate differently. The reason the garbage is piling is because I was not designed for forty thousand people throwing garbage in with no opportunity for emptying. I was not designed to go days without margin, rest, or reflection. Exodus twenty gave the Israelites commands from God which included a mandatory day of rest each week. I take even greater comfort from Jesus as he walked with his disciples.They had come back from a short term mission trip, and listening to their excitement he responds this way:
And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Mark 6:31 ESV
We see the command become real life. "Rest" as a command from Jesus. After the greatest success and the harshest failure, the need is the same. I love that Jesus gives us permission in a world with demands all around to allow space to clean up the garbage.The news gets better for me after this. If you read past this moment, the crowds don't make it easy. Jesus loves them and gives more of himself, even feeling the need for rest. (Wait...how is this better?)I'm simply encouraged to know it was not easy for Jesus either. He had to fight for quiet time with his Father and friends. It's encouraging to know I am not experiencing anything Jesus did not have to endure as well. This week I have time to empty the trash. I have time to rest, reflect, and sort the recycling from the compost.Do you feel like you are constantly playing a game to keep the built up stress and mess from spilling out of your life onto others? Take heart in knowing you weren't designed to let it pile up like that. You were designed for rest. Be encouraged to know that even Jesus found it a challenge and had to fight for the chance to have lunch with his friends. And then schedule rest in. Fight for it. Choose to not allow rest to be pressed out of your schedule even by good things.