I love getting messages from Thomas Merton. He always knows just what I need to hear.
Check this out…
There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence, and that is activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of this innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone and everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
This is so good. Thanks for posting it. Everything about the way this modern world is ordered, is to drive us on incessantly — so that we don’t have time to stop, reflect, think and appreciate (that stopping which seems to be the very heart of worship). There’s a song by the band Rush I’ve always loved that addresses this issue called “Time Stand Still.” It grapples with that frustrating feeling of always being driven forward like a herd of cattle.