Appoint Me to the Task
Strengthen me with Your blessing and appoint to me the task. (from Brendan Liturgy, Part XVI in Celtic Daily Prayer)
I get nervous if I don’t have a task list ready by the beginning of the week. Each day is laid out with 15 or more tasks. With this written plan, I know what needs to be done and how it fits into a larger picture. Without such a list I feel lost. Moreover, when someone else comes along and adds to this list, I am more than mildly annoyed. I want to be the one in control of my day.
This is such an innate part of my life that when something doesn’t turn out as expected my first instinct is to create a list that will be more foolproof. For example, when fewer people than expected attend a ministry event, I don’t first focus on the people currently present and the opportunities there. No, my mind creates a list of students to contact, of e-mails to get out, or new ways to advertise. The tasks increase. By doing more, I think I can improve attendance. Yet, even with this plan, I’m still fearful. I freeze up thinking that none of my efforts will lead to the desired result. But that’s all I can rely on, right?
If I take a breath and step back from these lists for a while, even in the discomfort, I recognize that no matter how many lists I create, I am not in control. This won’t change. Instead I see another way. I’m invited to take time to thank God. To pray. To wait. In this space, the answer isn’t more of the same, or another business strategy. No, instead it’s looking more deeply at the prayer Jesus invited his disciples to pray.
Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, (Matt 6:9-11)
In this prayer the focus isn’t on an endless list of to-dos for God or for me. It’s not a call to get it right. The focus is on who God is and the place to which he calls us—His kingdom. In relation to work, instead of my tasks, his bread is to do his will each day—His appointed tasks.
With this way, it’s a challenge to retain some sense of structure while keeping my hands open, ready for God’s direction. However, the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 offers some sense of this new way. When the disciples realized that the crowd wasn’t leaving after a day of listening to Jesus, they created their task list - send the crowd away so they could get lodging and provisions. However, Jesus appoints another task: “You feed them.” The disciples can’t see how that is possible as they only have a few fish and loaves of bread. The only way they can think of increasing the amount of food is to buy more. But Jesus shows them another way. He thanks God for His blessing and starts passing out food.
God’s blessing provides motivation and reforms our hearts and minds to listen to the new tasks. Remember his blessing - find strength there. So with open hands, with prayer and with a willingness to see it disrupted I can create a task list and give it over. Or maybe even go into a day without a list and be ready to see the miracles.
