“Our life is frittered away by detail… simplify, simplify.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
You probably knew that sooner or later I was going to write either about Disney or about cruising, right? I mean, after all, I’m going through major withdrawal over here regarding those two glorious ways to vacation.
I have known several people in my life who “plan” their vacation to Disneyworld in Florida. Now, when I say “plan”, I mean PLAN. There was one who had the plan so complete that it involved minutes. For example, the plan would say: Haunted Mansion. Six minutes walking. Pirates of the Caribbean. Two minutes walking. Jungle Cruise. Two minutes. Buy Dole Whips. Four Minutes to eat Dole Whips. Seriously. Walking time, buying time, eating time, everything was planned. If anything came along to foul up the plan, there would be all heck to pay.
How can someone enjoy a vacation when everything is that hyper-scheduled and when anything — anything! — can throw a monkey wrench into the details? I’ve known that person to come home more times than not frazzled to the core either because they accomplished everything exactly as planned or because things derailed. Either way, they often came back stressed.
When I go to Disney, I have no plan. As a matter of fact, some of my friends laugh at the way I decide what I am going to do each morning. For example, when I leave the resort, I will decide whether I’m going to walk to EPCOT or to Hollywood Studios. That is never decided until I walk out the doors of the resort.
If I don’t go to either of those two parks, I will play “bus roulette”. By that, I mean that I go to the bus station in front of the resort and wait for the first bus. Whichever comes, that’s the place I go. Sometimes it’s Animal Kingdom. Sometimes it’s Magic Kingdom. And sometimes, to my surprise, I find myself on the way to Downtown Disney. It doesn’t matter because I enjoy wherever I end up.
I used to go to the parks in commando fashion as well as some of my hyper-scheduling friends. I used to have a rigid schedule. There was an attack plan. But that got old really quick. I didn’t enjoy myself because I was focusing more on the schedule than on what I was doing.
The same thing happens in many areas of our lives, including our spiritual lives. We can become so detail-oriented that we forget to enjoy what we are doing. And if we are not enjoying what we are doing, there’s a good chance we will be reluctant to attempt it again.
Our spirituality should fill us with peace, joy, and contentment. If our spiritual lives are more about lists and planning, we are missing the idea of what a relationship with God is all about. God wants us to simplify because when we do so, we will have time to spend with Him doing absolutely nothing but chatting and being with each other.
FAITH ACTION: Try not to overly complicate your life today. Live in simplicity and let God do the augmenting.