{"id":20361,"date":"2015-10-11T11:33:25","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T16:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/?p=20361"},"modified":"2015-10-11T11:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T16:33:25","slug":"wasting-time-and-waiting-on-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/10\/wasting-time-and-waiting-on-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Wasting Time and Waiting on God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"looking_out_the_window_by_piechie-d3r6sx8\"<\/a>My essay this week at Imaginative Conservative is on the contemplative life and is entitled, On Windows, Work and Wasting Time<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

I am just looking out the window.<\/p>\n

That is all.<\/p>\n

What am I looking at? A tree. A squirrel. A cardinal and a jay. I see the dog luxuriating in the morning sun. I see a leaf fall. Before too long my mind is in the state where I am thinking of nothing and am therefore open to everything. I am connected with those other living things in \u201ca condition of complete simplicity costing not less than everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The monks say prayer is \u201cwasting time with God,\u201d and St. Benedict says that prayer is \u201copus Dei\u201d\u2014God\u2019s work. The word \u201cliturgy\u201d means \u201cwork of the laity,\u201d so perhaps God\u2019s best work is not all our busy activity for him, but what we might call wasting time with God.<\/p>\n

Only a short time of looking out the window reminds me that I am not very good at wasting time. Immediately my busy mind turns to \u201cmore important things.\u201d I am desperate to do something else, but force myself to stay and waste time at the window. Then I realize not only that I am addicted to my work, but\u00a0why\u00a0<\/em>I am addicted. With a sad realization I see it is because my work is rewarding. I get strokes. People praise me for my work. I love the attention and low-level adoration. There is no praise and glory in looking out the window and wasting time. No wonder I do not want to do it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Go here<\/a> to read the full essay.<\/p>\n

Image<\/a> Imaginative Conservative<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My essay this week at Imaginative Conservative is on the contemplative life and is entitled, On Windows, Work and Wasting Time I am just looking out the window. That is all. What am I looking at? A tree. A squirrel. A cardinal and a jay. I see the dog luxuriating in the morning sun. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":20362,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWasting Time and Waiting on God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My essay this week at Imaginative Conservative is on the contemplative life and is entitled, On Windows, Work and Wasting Time I am just looking out the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/10\/wasting-time-and-waiting-on-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wasting Time and Waiting on God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"My essay this week at Imaginative Conservative is on the contemplative life and is entitled, On Windows, Work and Wasting Time I am just looking out the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/standingonmyhead\/2015\/10\/wasting-time-and-waiting-on-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fr. 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