Whether I have a good or a bad day I am equally valuable

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Haydon Spenceley

Good morning.

As I start this new day with you, I realise that I am myself only three working days away from beginning a sabbatical from my work. What a blessing and privilege that is. Don’t worry, I won’t go on about it all week and rub your nose in it as you set forth on your hard-working day. I have been conscious of the need for rest and recovery for more than a year. Earlier this year I had a period of ill-health which really brought home to me how important it is to rest, to breathe more slowly and deeply than I am used to, not to rush about, not to try and fill every last second, not to let my own hugely over-developed sense of duty get the better of me.

I wonder if any of that sounds familiar. In a way I hope it does not. As I get ready to set things down for a time, I can already feel the twitch of needing to be needed becoming more powerful. I need to not listen to that in the coming months. It isn’t my productivity that makes me valuable and loved. It is me, who I am, who God says I am that gives me value. Whether I have a good or a bad day I am equally valuable. The same is true of all of us, even though one wouldn’t think so from what is said around us. It’s an important message I need to hear.

Father, I pray please help us to live well today. Help us to love and serve well when the opportunity comes today, help us to rest well when the time comes.

Amen