I had a fascinating conversation with a friend last night about the whole business of staying and moving.  This is, I think, related to the restlessness which we all share in to some greater or lesser degree.  I have friends who are constantly restless – who are almost incapable of staying in one place for any length of time.  They want to move on.  Their face is always looking forwards and towards something else.  They are never plagued with looking behind their shoulders!

 

 

One of the things that has surprised me in these early years of my middle age, is the degree to which I have been able to put down roots and to overcome the restlessness which we reflected upon.

 

What are we to make of greatness and how might you define it?  Well, for some people there are honours and there is status and there is acclimation and properly so.  But I think the Bible reminds us that greatness is as much to do with patience, the devoting of the soul to a definite place and a group of people as it is to do with the volume of business – and the busyness of volumes, or the variegated powers and distinctions achieved in a life.  It will be task of those who reflect on our lives at our funerals to make some decision about what has been achieved or what has been left untouched.

 

This is a challenge to me and I hope to you, to think about the place of restlessness in your life and aspirations.  It is inevitable. It is sometime very unsettling, but we need to put that restlessness into a broad perspective of who we are and what we hope to achieve.  Patience, perspective and the longer view are very important.