Juggling Life

I inevitably forget that I have put the teakettle on to boil and am often quite surprised when it sounds its piercing whistle. Boiling water is one of those multi-tasking things we do, thinking that we will not fail to be reminded by the whistle of the kettle at a full roiling boil regardless of where we might be or what we might be doing when that happens. However, in my forgetting, I am often surprised if I am in the kitchen by the sound my kettle makes when the steam begins to build. The sound resembles my laptop when it begins to get too hot and the fan first kicks on, attempting to cool it. What should be unmistakable often is not.

While taking online classes this week to maintain my teaching certifications, my laptop has been on all day. While I have learned how to keep the fan from kicking on for the most part, today while in the kitchen, my kettle began building steam and having forgotten it was on, I rushed from the room into the office to see if my computer was about to explode. What should have been in my short-term memory had already receded, and what should’ve receded (since I was on a lunch break not even using my computer) rushed to the forefront resulting in a frantic run into the next room to see what was happening. 

Several things jumped into my mind as I pondered this seemingly random event. First, multi-tasking really doesn’t work, regardless of what I’ve told myself for years. Truly, I can be focused on only one thing at a time, and if I let my pride delude me into thinking I am excluded from the  truth of the meaning of the word focus, I will be both distracted AND prideful—and we all knows what follows a haughty spirit, a fall and ultimately destruction. It is interesting that the older I get the more I realize this; whereas, when I was younger, I would’ve fought anyone who challenged me on this, saying that I was a great multi-tasker. In reality, I was good at juggling, and other people probably looked at me as the comic figure that I painted—sometimes a quite entertaining yet pitiable figure. The heart is deceitful, and it believes what it wants to believe. I am trying to believe I really do not have the ability to multi task. 

Second, I find more and more that I am easily distracted from the things on which I should be focused. When I think about the kettle metaphorically, it relates far too well to my spiritual life. As mentioned above, the heart is deceitful, and that deceit is closely connected to pride. In my experience, if I am trying to juggle far too many things in my life, thinking I can do everything well, I have lost the ability to hear the nudges of the Spirit in correcting me—the steam in this metaphor that offers a preliminary warning of what’s to come. If I am not aware of what God is doing in and through my life because I am too busy, I will miss His corrective nudge and be distracted by other things (like running to put out fires that don’t exist in other people’s lives) when I should be focused on my relationship with Him. Honestly, focusing on other people’s problems is much easier than dealing with my own lot at times. Just before the steam reaches a boil a louder roaring occurs before the kettle’s whistle sounds, and if I have lost focus, I may get too far away to hear even the whistle of the kettle when it reaches the critical point, much less the roar that warns me it is coming. Spiritually speaking, I may be in the wrong room, too far from God’s presence, putting out worldly fires instead of drawing near to Him and sitting quietly in His presence, learning how to bring Him the glory and honor He is due, which BTW doesn’t come when my focus is strictly on me.

So, there it is. A small glimpse into the spiritual metaphor of my life today (when I should be reading essays during my lunch break), which is that of a kettle building up pressure that will soon be relieved by the whistle of steam escaping it. God’s call to His children is inescapable and loud. Don’t leave the room.