Feeling the pressure of several tasks this week, I have a drumbeat of “deadline, deadline, deadline” in my head. For some tasks, the deadline comes from the person to whom I promise a finished project by a certain time — “Yes, I’ll make those phone calls and give you their responses by Saturday.”
How can I avoid feeling trapped by deadlines?
James 1:2-4 says, “My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Instead of hearing the drumbeat of deadlines, I need to re-imagine them as lifelines, challenges which, when met, will bring me closer to God.
This message is adapted from an October 2012 Women of the ELCA blog by Phyllis Rude.
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