Shells

A quote by Rob Bell from his Nooma Series:

"I was with my family, and we were at the beach, walking along the ocean. My boys were running around ahead of us, behind us, and they were finding all of these shells. Only they weren't really like full shells, they were almost like these fragments, little pieces of shells. They were still amazing in their complexity and design. But, nevertheless, just these little, tiny pieces of like shell shrapnel.

So we're walking along, and I look up ahead, and I see something floating in the water, and I think, "Is it..? Is that...? It is..." And we all look out. And there, floating off shore about 30 feet, is a huge starfish, and it's just kind of bobbing there peacefully in the water.

So, as a family, we stop, and we're just watching it. And one of my boys gets this look in his eyes, like, "That starfish is mine!" And so he charges into the water, and he gets partway in, and then he turns, and he runs back up onto the beach. And we're all like, "That's your starfish! Go get it! Go get it!" And he turns around, and he runs back into the water, and he gets even farther out this time, and then he stops, and he charges back up onto the beach, and he's getting more and more agitated and anxious.

So we're like, "What's the problem? Go get it! It's right there! You can get it!" So he charges back, and he goes even farther into the water this time, and at the last minute turns around and runs back up onto the beach, and he's getting more and more frustrated and more and more anxious, and we're all saying to him, "What's the problem? Just get it! Why can't you get it?" And he says, "I can't do it!" And we say, "Why?" And he says, "Because my hands are filled with shells."

Is this you? So busy doing so much that your hands are filled with shells? And some of it, or all of it, may even be good, but you can't grab hold of the starfish.

It is easy to get overwhelmed with appointments, gatherings, to-do lists. And many turn from place to place and it seems like life is just passing us by. We're doing so many things, a little bit of everything, and yet it doesn't feel like much of a life. But most of us find it hard to say no. We feel obligated. There are so many good things to do. So many good causes to join. But while we're busy doing all these good things, are we missing out on something great?"