Make Your Bed

by Jennifer Ruth Lynn Garrison

There [Peter] found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed!” And immediately he got up. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord. – Acts 9:33-35 (NRSV)

I have an app that grants its users virtual rewards for performing real self-care tasks. “Wake up!” it chirps at me each morning, followed by “Make your bed!” and “Enjoy a shower!” I complete these and a couple dozen other tasks and then click a button. With each task, a little fake confetti explodes joyfully on my phone screen and I collect a few fabricated gemstones. Even though I know it’s an algorithmic celebration, not a natural one, the dopamine hit with each of those confetti explosions is real.

I wonder what Aeneas’ dopamine response was to his healing. He had been bedridden for almost a decade when Peter commanded him to jump up and perform a little job. I wonder if, for the rest of his life, he associated his healing with making his bed. If so, was this little chore a celebration every day? Or, in time, did both the healing and the task become commonplace? What did it take for him (or really for any of us) to rejoice daily in both the miraculous and the mundane? My ultimate goal is to train my brain to associate my morning tasks with a tiny high so I can just bypass the app altogether. But in the meantime, I’m going to click “finish writing” on my phone and celebrate. 

Prayer
Healing Friend, guide us to naturally rejoice in it all, every single day. Amen.

Rev. Jennifer Garrison (formerly Brownell) is a writer, spiritual director and pastor living in the Pacific Northwest. Her published work most recently appeared in the book The Words of Her Mouth: Psalms for the Struggle, available from The Pilgrim Press.

A Tale of Two Clocks

by Marchae Grair | published on Dec 2, 2019

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years,and a thousand years are like a day. – 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV)

I grumbled as I shuffled to the outdoor trashcan after cleaning up my dog’s millionth accident. I reached for the doorknob of my apartment and couldn’t get in. I had locked myself out and my partner was asleep. I had such a long to-do list for the morning that I immediately started berating myself. How could I finish unpacking in a timely manner if I accidentally dedicated an undetermined amount of time to creeping around my house, seeing if I could get my partner to let me in? Where would I reallot my regular morning session of worrying about things I couldn’t change?

After about fifteen minutes, I accepted my fate. I was wedded to my front stoop until my partner found me.

And then, I saw the kind face of the woman collecting cans from neighborhood receptacles and the gentle gaze of the man who wanted to make sure she made it up the hill without losing her cart. I saw my next-door neighbor for the first time, as he wished me a great weekend. I met a sweet neighborhood dog, whose excitement eventually made my dogs bark and led to my partner finding me.

I would have missed so much of a beautiful morning working on the things I thought couldn’t wait, chasing time and simultaneously hoping time didn’t catch up with me.

I’m so thankful for the reminder that God’s time isn’t about my tasks or to-do lists. God’s time is about the interconnected breaths and moments that remind us we all belong to each other.

Prayer

Dear God: Keep resetting my clock to keep me mindful of others and closer to You. Amen. (Marchae Grair)