Beside Still Waters (or the Fumes and Drone of a Go-Kart)

I'm not gonna lie, much of life right now feels like just surviving a very busy season.  I start each day with a to-do list and a prayer that I'll find balance.  Today's to-do list includes: complete lessons and prepare to lead Bible Study, read chapter 2 in text, write essay response, revise paper, email this person, do laundry and make grocery list.  The girls have each taken their turn with a stomach bug in the past week and the calendar has something on it every day.  The past 2 weeks have been packed with mornings observing in preschool for research, helping in the girls' classrooms, dinner with church families, a piano recital, book club, hosting family visitors, football games, fall parties, etc.  I very easily feel overwhelmed and panicked if I do not stay right on top of these details and obsessively cross things off my to-do lists.  

Which is why last Tuesday was just the short breath for air that we all needed.  I just finished a Bible Study lesson about the rivers of refreshment that God delivers in our times of wilderness and I realized that our annual afternoon at Funworks for Pastor Appreciation Day was, for me, the still waters that David talks about in Psalm 23.  Kinda funny to think about go-karts and mini-golf as Biblical, but for me it provided just the rest, revival and refreshment needed to carry on.  Instead of swallowing a lump in my throat thinking about all the things that needed to be done, I drove that go-kart with my foot pressed hard on the gas pedal thinking about nothing other than "beating Daddy" and Delia's screams of pure joy beside me.