LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE

“He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters…” (Psalm 23:2, NIV)

Remember the song the Eagles released in 1976, on their Hotel California album, titled “Life in the Fast Lane?”  It goes, “Life in the fast lane, slowly make you lose your mind, life in the fast lane.”  For many of us with chronic illnesses and/or pain, life has slowed way down.  We can no longer live life in the fast lane and sometimes we feel like we aren’t living life at all because we are so limited.  Although as the saying goes, “we ain’t what we used to be”, we can still find peace, contentment and joy in our present circumstances.  We have definite blessings that people who are always busy don’t get to experience.  I have the joy each morning of being able to journal, pray and spend quiet time with the God of the universe.  My mornings are usually filled with quiet and solitude, and I can be still and listen to God (Psalm 46:10).  Many don’t have this privilege.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon analyzes man’s daily pursuits of work and pleasure and calls them “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (v. 1).  The Hebrew word for vanity means “breath” or “mist”, signifying that because death comes to all mortal men, their labor to build earthly cultures is useless.  When they die, their works are forgotten.  Solomon even says that everything pleasurable in this life is vanity (Eccl. 2:10-11).  Jesus said, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet loses his soul?” (Mark 8:36).  On the other hand, we have the assurance that God’s work is never in vain (John 6:27-29; I Cor. 15:58).

Even many believers’ lives are characterized by work, busyness and pleasure.  God can be forgotten.  Worldly pursuits will never completely satisfy.  The most important thing we can attain in this life is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Through CFS, God took me out of the fast lane of life to sit at His feet.  What could be more important than that? 

Dear Jesus, thank You for putting us in the slow lane of life, that we might spend more time with You!