Is the pace of your life too fast? Does cleaning up your dining area mean throwing fast food bags out of the back of the van? Has your grocery list been on the refrigerator so long that some of the products don’t exist any more? Do you drive through McDonald’s and ask for your order to go? Do you forget your twin brother’s birthday? Do you ask at the dollar store, “How much is this?” Are you stressed out?
Did you ever wonder why a pigeon walks so funny? A pigeon walks that way to see where it’s going. A pigeon has difficulty focusing its eyes, so it must bring its head to a complete stop before each step to refocus. It’s time for us to stop and refocus. Don’t just slow down; stop.
There is a difference between stopping and slowing down. A man was pulled over for running a stop sign. He argued to the officer that he had slowed down and looked both ways. The officer said, “You have to stop.” They continued the discussion — the man insisting he had slowed down, and the officer insisting that he had to stop. The man told the officer there was no difference between stopping and slowing down. With that remark, the officer said, “Get out of the car.” The officer started to beat the man with a billy stick. “Sir,” said the officer, “would you like for me to stop or just slow down?” The man finally understood the difference between stopping and slowing down — which, in this case, was about $110. We need to stop to think about where life is headed and what kind of connections we are making. This is a sign of maturity.
I’m a grandpa now. You know what 2-year-olds are like. They are immature. They don’t say, “Papa, I’m getting cranky and irritable and I’m not sharing well. I need a nap.” They’ve never said that to me. Yet I’m around adults to whom I want to say, “You’re cranky, you’re irritable, you’re not sharing well. You need a nap.”
The best way to enjoy some peace in life is to add some space. Space is the difference between your limit and your load, the place where you have a little left over. It’s like having a little breath left after reaching the top of the stairs. Space is having a little money left over at the end of the month. Space is having a little time left over before the deadline. Space is having a little bit left over.
Do you remember the days of leftovers? I do. On Sundays we had a big meal, usually with roast beef. That night we had leftovers. I loved those roast beef sandwiches. I looked forward to the leftovers. A friend of mine said that he always had leftovers at his house — he never saw an original meal. Leftovers are nice. It means you have enough space in the pace of your life.
Let me personalize this. Space means you have enough time to read this article twice. Let me visualize it for you. Let’s say you make plans to go to Florida for vacation. The travel agent books you a ticket to Florida with a layover in Atlanta. You arrive in Atlanta at 11:46 a.m., and you depart on the next plane at 11:48 a.m. You have a two-minute connection in Atlanta. What do you think? You think that you can make it if you sit at the front of the plane and carry on your baggage. Maybe you can be the first off the plane. Maybe your connecting flight will be late and this plane will be early. Maybe your plane will be parked next to your connecting flight. If things are perfect, this schedule just might work.
Most of us get up each day and think we can make that two-minute connection, hoping we can make it all work. Maybe things will happen just the way they need to happen so you can get through the day. Guess what? It never happens that way. There are no one-hour delays, only three-hour delays. Planes never connect in the same gate area. I’ve never been on a plane that arrived early when I needed to make a close connection. Life doesn’t work that way.
A man was driving on the Tri-state freeway in Chicago. His hat blew off in the middle of busy traffic. He stopped the car, ran across the freeway to get his hat, and was hit and killed instantly. The man who wrote the article about the accident observed, “It’s amazing that you can lose everything chasing nothing.”
Stop. Don’t just slow down, but stop. Think about the connections in life. Do we spend more time shopping for the people we love than spending time with them? Let’s leave enough space to stop. Otherwise, the pace will squeeze the love, the life, and the laughter out of you. If you want to finish the race with grace, put a little space in your life. Enjoy the leftovers.