Merry Go Round

 I loved playing on merry go rounds when I was a child. I found equal enjoyment if I was the one spinning or riding. If I was spinning, I tried to spin it so fast my classmates could barely hang on to the bars. I took pleasure in the fact that people either got so dizzy it made them sick, or some actually could not hang on falling to the ground. Looking back that seems very cruel. Vice versa, if I was riding, I prided myself on never giving up or getting so dizzy I begged them to stop. There were times when I actually hooked my legs underneath the bar and hung upside down off the edge to get a greater thrill. 

While I loved that playground equipment, that is not what is on my mind today. I'm thinking of the merry go rounds of our busy schedules. Schedules that are spinning faster and faster out of control. The nights of sleep appear so short while some of the days appear long. Days with appointments and assignments piled on top of one another. Days so crammed you are tired before the day even gets started no matter how long you slept. 

I got myself in a jam a few years ago. I was the full time pastor at a church. I also took on the role of an Athletic Director for a private Christian school that met in our facilities. I coached basketball, P.E., weightlifting and started up a six man football program as well. On top of that, I preached or taught 8 times every week. I was on a merry go round I could not get off from spinning increasingly faster. 

It started taking a toll on me emotionally and psychologically. I just did not have down time. Nor did I have much time alone when somebody did not need me to do something. It all became real when during the week of Spring Break when I had the entire facility to myself, I got irritated when a teacher stopped in to feed her fish in the classroom. She did not bother me. It bothered me that she was in the building, even though minding her own business. I knew something was wrong with me that day. 

I was given a book about refreshing the soul soon after that incident. As I read it slowly and I identified the reason for my irritation at the teacher coming in the building. My life was spinning too fast and I needed to slow down. There was no off ramp. No way of slowing down the increasing speed of the merry go round. I went from even tot event exhausted. I forced myself to the next task, to mark the next to do item off my list, trudging through the days. My joy waned. My fatigue manifested itself in impatience.  I dragged myself out of bed in the mornings, and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow at night. 

If life was not crazy enough, Brenda had back to back knee replacements in the span of five months. I read the book about restoring the soul in a park in Decatur, TX while she did her physical therapy. In that park, I made the prayerful and hard decision to jump off the merry go round. I knew I was called to be a pastor. It became clear I was not a good fit for an Athletic Director. I had to step down. In fact, I had to step down from several positions during that season that were all good, but not vital to what God called me to do. 

Do you need to jump off the merry go round? Is your life spinning too fast out of control. It will continue to do so unless you take control and make the tough decisions to slow down. It will not make everyone happy when you start saying no to the things you said yes to before. I just read about God slowing King David down in Ps 23:1-3. Perhaps you should go read it for yourself. There is nothing wrong with going to a place of restoration and refreshing for your soul. There is nothing wrong with jumping off the merry go round when life is spinning too fast.