I need a holiday: a modern day liturgy for my life...

Do you think that we all have our own personal liturgies in our lives?  The way we live them, orientate them, order them - our own formulas/routines/rituals that help us get through life?

I couldn't help when I was listening to the following song thinking how much of my work liturgy is driven by a mantra of feeling too tired, busy and in a rush [and thus a useful member of society]- in short i'm always wanting the weekend to come, or even better dreaming of that holiday, preferably somewhere warm...

I need a holiday

It's a beautiful day, but I'm stuck inside.
Staring at this screen, working 9-5.
How I hate this job, coz the days do drag.
They work me like a dog, and the moneys bad.
Cheer up cheer up, don't be blue.
Don't forget it's hometime soon.
We'll make it through another working day.

I need a holiday.
I need a holiday with my friends.
I'm working everyday.
I'm working everyday for the weekend.

Looking at my watch, for the millionth time.
The days go slow, and then the evenings fly.
When I'm outta this place, and the days been won.
I'm going out with my friends, I'm hanging out in the sun.
Cheer up cheer up, don't be blue.
Don't forget it's hometime soon.
We'll make it through another working day.

I need a holiday.
I need a holiday with my friends.
I'm working everyday.
I'm working everyday for the weekend.

I wish it could be sunday when I wake up every day.
I wish it could be sunday when I wake up every day.
I wish it could be sunday when I wake up every day.


But I need you, yeah I need you.
Yeah I need you more than I can say.
Yeah I need you, yeah I need you.
Yeah I need you more than I can say.

Scouting for girls

Now maybe it's cos i got up at 4.45am this morning, travelled up to the north-east of england, delivered the same training session 4 times over and then travelled back, getting home late and walking from the statation in the pouring rain - but the whole holiday liturgy really looks great!

The only drawback is that i can end up skipping/writing off a large chunk of mylife, working as a means to an end in a cycle that self perpetuates, my liturgy remains a constant one of escape rather than facing reality of the dull days that drag and the glimmers of good that weave through then.

The equation of striving to find a work/life balance perpetuates this, that there is work time and then there is my real life and never the twain shall meet, just compete with each other - 2 seperate liturgies to chose from and order my life around. And of course i also wonder if there can ever be a balance at all?

A third way would be to say that as a christian i am meant to orientate my life around Jesus, a lived out liturgy of love around the source of true life.  Jesus seems not to promise either the endless system of work and reward or escape and leisure but instead an intergrated way of being and doing, resting and reconnecting. I find that so difficult to intergrate with my own life liturgies - why is it so hard to get my head, body and soul around this?

That's my confession, i'm curious, what advice you have and what your own life liturgies are?

Comments

[Toni]

I wonder if you're slightly over-intellectualising it?

Regardless, I have one thought (there's a novelty) that springs to mind. A historically Jewish view of work was that it constituted a key part of their worship of God. With that in mind, how might it shape our approach to what is frequently a tedious and repetitive portion of our day?

Another thought creeps in about how our church services might reflect this, but is quickly squashed in the name of not wanting to rock that old boat again.

[Duncan McFadzean]

Paul, I can identify with a lot of that. I know that work matters (it was there pre-Gen 3 and so will be forever) but I also know that HOW we work matters. What I really wrestle with, is whether or not WHAT we do matters. I'd love to hear more about what a liturgy of love looks like in your workplace, it's a very hard environment in an office to live in that way.

[Paul]

Lol, thanks Toni, i thought that's why i put in a track by scouting for girls to lower the intellectual content ;)

Seriously though, i think the fact that the liturgy is sung as a catchy pop song is an important one - it reflects for me just how absorbed into our psyche it is.

I like your thought on how we value what is tedious - it reminds me of "ordinary time" in the church calendar where we can celebrate and find value in our everyday eating, drinking, sleeping, walking, working, thinking lives...

[Paul]

Thanks Duncan - yes you're right we can't get rid of work, it's part of our calling to tend and care for creation - and that of course is hard work :)

As for a liturgy of love for the work place the closest i've touched on it recently is here
http://paulmayers.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/10/let-us-speak-th.html