The Art of Sitting

A study was done about Ecuadorians and their work habits. Someone noticed how Ecuadorians in the US where stunned at how much North American worked. In responce to this, someone did a study on how many actually work hours (hours spent DOING work... not just hours AT work) an average Ecuadorian in Ecuador was doing. Wanna guess? 3 hours. Do you know WHY? Because they value RELATIONSHIPS. They would much rather sit down and talk to you and find out about how you are then go to work and make money.
Now if you know me at all, you know that I like to get things DONE. I like to check things off a list. (I know I'm a big dork) I do love people, but I have not mastered the art of sitting.

In the past several weeks since I have been back in Colorado, I have done a lot of nothing. And it has frustrated me to extreme, but God is teaching me slowly how to just sit in his presence. He is teaching me that there are things that I must work on BEFORE I leave. And as a wise friend of mine recently reminded me, sitting is good... thats when I can finally slow down and listen to what God is trying to tell me.

I have even had an awful time sitting at Starbucks (GASP! i know right?) I usually sit around for a bit and then get to talk to someone interesting. But NO, not here. Every time I go in to a coffee shop, either (a) no one else is there or (b) no one else is there who wants to talk to me (aka they are with someone and want to talk only to them). So. as I am slowly learning the art of sitting, I decided yesterday that I would begin praying for the people who I saw... even if I couldn't talk to them. And believe it or not, the coolest thing happened: I overheard the couple sitting to my left starting a semi-conversation about God. I thought it would be rather odd to lean over and say, "So I hear you're talking about God, can I talk with you?" ... so instead I practiced the art of sitting. I sat and prayed.