Losing One's Self in Work
It's cold out. It's winter. My children are both napping. I do what I always do to reconnect with myself and God: I sew. I'm sewing. I love sewing. I live to sew.
Instead of deep cleaning the kitchen or bathrooms, calling my sisters on the phone or sitting online pinning things to my fantasy life (i.e., clean and organized) on Pinterest, I'm sitting in an old office chair, huddled over yards of fabric and muttering to myself while ripping out a seam gone awry.
When I sit down at my sewing machine, frowning slightly at my troublesome project at hand, or flicking through my fabrics for the right one, I'm sitting down inside myself. I'm opening my hands and waiting for God.
And he comes for a visit, as he always is poised to do, just awaiting our invitation. And the repetition of the needle up down up down mimics the steady beating of my lub-dub heart as it simply sits in him.
—Nell, writing on the Mothering Spirit blog, 2013 motheringspirit.com. Retrieved November 21, 2018.
When I read those words I had somewhat envious feeling, you might say. The reason is that I am not a person who finds God in those moments of sewing. I tried to build model cars and airplanes and also do string art (back in the day), but those days have long past. I wish I enjoyed doing those small motor skills like sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc. but too many years of sports injuries to my hands has left me with the inability to spend time in them (and with God).
Of course, you may not find God's presence in doing those things either. However, I hope you and I can always find that Presence in the finished product. I know when I look at completed projects like quilts or clothing made with love which have stories behind those gifts of love, I am moved.
Whatever way you have to "get away and get connected to God" I hope you do that. I hope that gift to you helps you to reconnect with God in those moments of creativity, work, and story making.
I am reminded of the words of Frederick Buechner who once said, "If you lose yourself in your work, you find who you are. If you express the best you have in you in your work, it is more than just the best you have in you that you are expressing."
Amen to that!
Pastor Steve
Note: Don't forget this Sunday is Mother's Day as well as "Dorcas Day" and we are asking people to bring in projects they have made in sewing, knitting, crocheting, etc. or have been given as a gift. In this way, we will get to see "face to face" examples of what the story of Dorcas (also known as Tabitha) looked like for those spoken of in the Acts 9:36-43 passage.