Paul knew the words Jesus had said about the temple being destroyed and the social upheaval and the natural disasters and the persecution. He lived in the middle of it, even during his lifetime. It’s revealing that he didn’t get caught up in the worry.

Instead, he worked hard on his tentmaking and his teaching and his writing and his praying and his encouraging and his listening and his sabbath keeping and laughing.

I’m guessing about the last one. But I think that Paul laughed.

Paul knew that his life could end any time, that his life would end when his work was done. So he worked hard at the work he had. So that in six days or six months or six years, he’d have taken care.

What can we do?

• We can do our work carefully and thoughtfully and diligently. As if God has given us work as a way to provide for ourselves and our families.
• We can distract others from their worry about getting things right by saying “thank you.”
• We can distract ourselves from our exhaustion by taking naps.
• We can distract ourselves from the people who make money from our anger and fear by turning off the news.
• We can distract people from the silent waiting by asking people about their cats.
• We can distract ourselves from our cycles of inadequacy by asking people to help us think about where God may be doing things.
• We can distract ourselves from being distracted by renewing our commitments to reading and praying and encouraging and blessing and offering hope.

I’m not naïve. Really hard things happen. I’m around them all the time.

But I want to learn better how to work like Paul and Jesus. With an eye to the present and coming storms, I want to love deeply in the time I have.