What is Mine to Do?

My “to do” list is long.  My prayer list is longer.  I am grateful for the job I have and the privilege of praying for others.  But sometimes (OK, a lot of the time) I am overwhelmed by all the work, all the need, all the suffering.  The 24/7 news cycle and social media make sure that I know about the hurricanes and the floods and the earthquakes.  And the wars.  And the shootings.  And the friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend with cancer.  I see the “Go Fund Me” posts on Facebook.  And I get the action alerts of different political and faith organizations.  I feel pulled in so many different directions – where do I put my time? to what cause do I donate my money?

Suzanne Stabile, a Methodist pastor’s wife, mother of four, social worker, retreat leader, and master teacher of the Enneagram, says the question we should be asking ourselves, “what is mine to do?”

In a world of so much need and so many projects competing for our time, how do we spend our days, minutes, hours?  How do we spend our lives?

This kind of decision-making takes time.  And – at least for me – it takes quiet.  I need to have quiet time every day to just sit and breathe and remember that I am loved by God.  And out of that safe space of abundance, I can start to “do.”   I can decide “what is mine to do.”  The quiet, the sitting, the breathing, the remembering “who I am and whose I am” helps me to stop comparing myself to others (who always seem to be doing more, more important, more successful things than I).  The daily time with God helps me to feel less pushed, less panicked when I hear the news or get the email or listen to the request.

I can’t do everything.  And as Saint Mother Teresa of Kolkata wrote, “Not all of us can do great things.  But we can do small things with great love.”

Let us support one another in prayer as each of us discerns “what is mine to do?”