I think this passage confronts me today. For I am looking at a morning that has gone to shreds, with limited sleep, and a session (which starts at 6 PM) to chair this evening. And speak at. So I tossed, turned and in the end gave up and read. From 3 AM local time.

Clutter is not merely physical possessions. It is the cares of this world. It is a loss of priorities.

That leave us distracted, tired, and not coherent. A bit like the man, tortured, in the photo today… who I did not intend to be in the photo but who speaks much more loudly than the UN tower blocks in Vienna.

MATTHEW 13:1-9
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!”

It is what we do and what we produce that counts. It’s fairly immaterial how we feel about this whil ewe are doing it. I have to be able to present at 6 PM today… and before that I have to trust God, and not get distracted by the cares of this world. Or not allow the word to take root in me.

For bad times come, and out of that time we get the growth in our lives and the lives around us. Almost everything worthwhile is a struggle — and that we cannot achieve is given to us only by the mercy and grace of God.

So I will have to get ready, walk past the scientologists protesting, and go to the conference and do my job. That, for today, will suffice.