13th May, 2009

NILS VON KALM

My wife and I recently returned from a holiday to the South Island of New Zealand. As we were travelling around that beautiful country, I started to see how much we always seem to have to 'fill in' time, how we always have to be 'doing' something.

The first question we often ask someone we haven't seen for a while is 'Are you busy?' as if busyness is a virtue, and that if you're not busy you're not contributing to society.

On our holiday we were always thinking of the next thing to do. But when we stopped off at a little place called Lake Paringa, on the west coast of the South Island, it looked as though it was a place where time could stand still. It was like the place that time forgot. It was the place where you could camp for a few weeks and your day would consist of getting up when you were ready, maybe doing a bit of trout fishing, reading a book, having a long chat, eating some dinner, and then doing it all again the next day. It's very hard to imagine being that still, to be actually 'doing' nothing.

We live in a society that causes stress. Being time-bound, we always feel rushed. The pace of life seems to be getting faster and faster. So it is of little surprise that the rate of depression is increasing in our hyper-paced world. American psychologist Martin Seligman has done research which says that, since the end of World War II, the rate of depression in western, industrialised countries, has risen tenfold. That is, the rate of depression today is 10 times what it was 60 years ago.

I used to equate that with the fact that, despite the current economic downturn, we have never been richer. But now I think that's only part of the reason. I also think it's because of our whole way of life. My dad sometimes says to me, “we're living all wrong”. I agree with him. In our drive for freedom, the apparent freedom that we strive for looks like too many choices.

We're always looking for ways to save time. The irony is that the very act of our rushing all over the place so we can have more time causes us to become more stressed. What we think is going to help us actually tightens the noose around our neck even more. So we rush even faster and so the cycle continues. In the words of U2, we're running to stand still.

In the 1970s we were told that in the 21st century, with the rapid advancement of technology, we would all have much more time to spare and we would only need to work part-time. How wrong we were. No wonder more and more people are downshifting. This idea is nothing new. Back in 2004, the New Economics Foundation published some work on what they called a 'wellbeing manifesto'. Similarly, the 23rd Psalm, a psalm that I grew up with, still has as much relevance today as it ever has. Consider the words:

"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."

Sometimes when I meditate on words like these, I have a sense that I just want to be in the same room as God, just be in His presence, me in my chair and Him sitting in the chair over in the other corner of the room. And that's OK.

God wants that too. Too often I let the things of life distract me from what is important, from what really matters. I do what feels good, but I don't always do what will make me feel good about myself. But as I sit and be still, I realise how fast-paced my life is, how much of a hurry I'm always in, and how much I feel I need to fit in. In an earlier article about the clutches of time, I stated that Jesus never seemed to be rushed, despite the enormous demands on Him by people of all persuasions. He realised that life was about doing what was right, and not being enslaved to the demands of the world around Him.

There is a scene in the excellent film, I Am Legend, in which Will Smith's character, Robert Neville, finds another survivor, Anna. Anna tells Robert that it was God's will that they meet. She says that, now that there is no-one left on the planet and the distracting noise of life no longer drowns out the voice of God, we can God's plan if we listen. It's a poignant moment in what is an amazing movie. And it brings home once again the contradiction of a life in which we seek happiness and contentment in that which brings us the opposite.

On that last day when we will all face our Maker, He is not going to ask, “so did you get all that stuff done?”. The question He will ask is “How did you love? How did you treat the least of these my brothers and sisters?”. The God who is not bound by space and time would long for that same lack of bondage to be characteristic of us.

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