Multum Non Multa - Slowing Down to Go Further

We've all been there. That place in life when you need a clone, or extra hours in the day to get it all done. Home. Work. School. Church. Friends. Community Service. Family. Personal Growth. Sports. Crafts. All good things. All good things.  I often feel as if I am always busy, yet never getting anything done. There is always somewhere else to go, another chore to be accomplished, the next item on the list....

Inevitably we crash. Sometimes we simply need a do-nothing day at home. Then there are those times we completely break down - whether physically or emotionally.  We break under the constant pressure to do it all and to be it all. Stress related illnesses and diseases are no stranger to the modern American.

Multum Non Multa - Much not Many. 

The first time I heard that phrase I was very confused. How can you have much of something, but not many? Isn't it an oxymoron? In a way it is, but it encapsulates a truth the ancient world, and more importantly Christ, knew was vital to a well-lived life.  The idea of Multum non multa is that our time is better spent, and our quality of life is better when we do fewer things, but do them well. There is such a thing as too much good. Depth is more important than breadth. Quality is more valuable than quantity. Less is more. 

Take a walk down the aisles of Target. You have $1000 to make your life more beautiful. How do you spend it?  Often in life we stock our cart as high as we can. We will even put some on credit. Nothing in your cart is "bad", it may even all be good things that you will enjoy.  Everything you bring home is going to bring happiness - at least for the time being. But in 1 month, 6 months, 10 years, how much of that is going to end up in the trash, shoved under a bed, or sent to GoodWill? And when the credit card bill is due - what do you do then?

Living a life of "Much not Many" is walking out of Target, across the street to the local work-worker, choosing wood, stain, and fabrics, and paying for instruction in handcrafting a beautiful rocking chair in which babies can be cuddled, fictional lands explored, and stories told. A chair that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Within education, this means carefully choosing what we study and when. This is why many classical models revolve around history. Students study a set time period's history, literature, art, music, philosophies, theologies, and scientific achievements and discoveries - digging deep into not just the what, but the how's and why's. They look at history's big picture, how that picture is composed, and how all those components work together. A rotating 3 or 4 year cycle means students come back to the same material multiple times, each time with deeper study, research, and understanding as they grow in wisdom, rhetoric, and logic. Each rotation allows them to dive into the details and depth of that one picture. They are trained to find and love the truth, beauty, and goodness in the picture as a whole, and in each of its components. They study Latin, because it includes the study of grammar, vocabulary, spelling, logic, linguistics, and foundation of western culture - in mastering one language, they have mastered the fundamentals of all Language. They study math not as a set of utilitarian facts and algorithms, but as a language that describes the world around them. We spend hours in the early grades training in spacial relationships and place-value while attaching purposeful meaning to fact memorization, so that in the later years algebra and calculus become simply the "rhetoric" of the art of numbers. Multum non multa. (I am beginning to realize much "classical" curriculum is overly complicated and includes too much at the expense of better things, but that is for a different discussion.) 

Multum non multa is the next step in achieving Schole - it is putting aside good things to focus on the best things.  It is properly ordering our loves and lives. Our lives have many good things, but what is it that we should LOVE? Enjoying too many good things means we are not loving anything. 

The easiest way to begin working toward schole, is to prioritize and structure our life around those things that are most "true, good, and beautiful".  What are my priorities? What is not just good in life, but what is best in life? How can I structure my day, my week, and my months to focus on what is best?

I've begun making a few small adjustments to help keep me and our home focused on the "best". We have started using the Daily Lectionary for morning devotions. We are read one of the Psalm readings together, taking a few moments to discuss what truths about God we see, followed by reciting the Nicene Creed, singing the Doxology (the 6 year old's idea), prayer requests (personal, friends, family, national, and world) and praying Thomas Aquinas's "Ante Studium". In 10 to 15 minutes we have started our day with praise, learning a little about the nature of God, internalizing the basic tenants of our faith, and directing our thoughts, joys, burdens, and studies to the Creator. It also includes literary analysis, memorization, current events, theology, music training, and spiritual formation.  It is simple and easy, yet incorporates many great truths and beauties that will benefit all of us for the rest of our lives. As an added bonus, even mornings that begin with grumpy children (or Mommy), ruined breakfast, and unexpected events, settle into a more peaceful atmosphere simply by having a routine focused on what is best. We have dropped AWANA and Classical Conversations this year - both good programs that were detracting from better things in our family life. I have worked on simplifying household chores, so now most of it can be completed in about 20 minutes after dinner - leaving me time for better things in the afternoons and evenings. 

Christopher Perrin says, "Stress is a dysfunctional relationship with time."  Much of the stress in our lives is because we are spending our time on good things, but not the best things. We are jacks of all trades, yet masters of none. We fail to realize that by spending time investing in one or two great things, we learn more, we can be more, and we can do more. 

I believe Christ pointed to this concept in his ministry.  God gave us a world with many good things to do, but He also gave us one singular goal:

 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 

and all these things will be added to you. 

Matthew 6: 33 (ESV)

He reiterated this to Martha. Martha who was so busy doing many good things, but missed the best! 

But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha,you are anxious and troubled about  many things, but one thing is necessary.

Luke 10: 41 (ESV)

When we focus and prioritize our life around glorifying God, it simplifies it all. There is only "one thing necessary" and all those other things will happen. 

When I am stressed, when life seems to be chaotic, the to-do list is never ending, and nothing is being done well, I need to ask myself one question, "What glorifies God?" When I slow down to focus on my one purpose, I am more and I go further than I ever thought possible. 

Schole - In Just Being

I was asked this week, "How do you have time to think like this and to post what you are thinking?" My reply, "I have to. It keeps me sane."

A completely inadequate answer, but in the midst of taking care of children, it was all there was really time for. This has been a long journey, and one I am still struggling to understand and walk. I've spent several years maintaining a household, educating children, going to Bible Studies, faithfully attending church, yet living with the nagging feeling that there is more to life than this. There was a time when I thought I found the American Christian life of a home educating wife and mother fulfilling - but that was gone. I was bored. I was depressed. I was always overwhelmed, no matter how much or how little I was doing. I was praying, involved in a Bible Study, going to church every week, most days had personal devotions - yet something was still missing.

I was so busy "doing", I wasn't just "being". As I've looked back to when I started becoming dissatisfied, I realized it coincided with some major life events in which I made some very small, yet very significant changes. Not that I ever had it all together, or was ever completely content - I am too human, too selfish, too prideful for that - but when a few things were removed from my daily life, I gave up those things that really make me - me. For as long as I can remember, I've had music at the core of my life. Whether it was lessons as child, singing with a choir, working as church organist, then as church pianist, much of my week has always involved music. A change in my husband's job changed that. I went from multiple weekly rehearsals and daily practicing, to 15 minutes once a week in church with a team that had no means of practicing often trying to keep 5 wiggly children in-line at the same time.

The second thing that had always been core to my life was study. I love reading, researching, learning, questioning, and reasoning. Through my formal education years, my life revolved around it.  As a young teacher I was constantly reading new research, striving to find new and better ways to reach my students and understand their development. As a new mom it was parenting - and with our first 2 children having exceptional needs, reading, researching, and experimenting with ideas, activities, and approaches to meet their needs. Then it was being challenged with grace-based parenting, instead of the moralism so prevalent in the church and homeschool communities I was in. Then it was homeschooling - I was the only person I knew doing it, so it took a lot of thought, prayer, reading, experimenting to find what this new life-style was and how it works.  Then it was Bible Study, first as a participant then as a leader - diving into the Word of God in ways I never had before. Going beyond the stories, theology, and application to the heart and character of God. Then life changed.  I was no longer needed for bible studies. I had been through curriculum so many times I had it memorized.

Then I made probably the biggest mistake - I began listening to voices, well-meaning voices from God-fearing people, who told me I was in a stage of life where my only priority was my husband and children. Someday I would miss it all. It was selfish to want more.  God had called me to serve them and the music, the teaching, the study was pulling me away from that. So I threw myself into meal planning, lesson planning, home making - doing all the things a good wife and mom is supposed to do.

They missed the point of life. My role as wife and Mom are roles I play - they are important ones, but they do not define me. They can be taken away at any time. I can wake up tomorrow to find I am no longer a wife, no longer a mother. There is no guarantee that a year from now I will be a chaplain's wife and home educator. The one thing that will never change, the one thing, the only thing that really defines me is who I am in Christ. The core of who I am, what really satisfies, what makes me complete is Worship. I was not created to be a mom. I was not created to be a wife. I was created for Worship. What I lost when I gave up music and study was not extra activities that pulled me away from my purpose - I lost how I was created to Worship. Those rehearsals and practice times always began and ended with time to just enjoy music for the sake of the music. It was through hymns, choruses, Bach, and Mozart I most clearly heard and saw the heart of God. It was how I poured out my love, my hopes, my dreams, my sorrows. It isn't surprising that in college when asked to write on a theological work I chose "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" - because through a hymn I understood the heart and soul of the Reformation and grace.  In study and teaching, it was never just preparation for a class or work, because the "work" always lead me to a place where I was searching for the fingerprint of God. I saw Him and understood Him in pedagogical theory, Piaget, and Plato ways I couldn't in diapers, dinners, and dusting.

In "doing" all the "right" things, I stopped Being who I was created to be. The irony of the error of those well-intentioned voices is that I was a better Mom and a better Wife when I was taking the time to "be". This is the heart of "schole". Schole is not about relaxing, kicking our feet up, and putting the work aside. It is enjoying things for their own sake. It is enjoying the music for the sake of the music itself. It is reading the book for the beauty and value intrinsic to the book. It is taking a walk for the sheer enjoyment of Creation. It is doing things just "to be", not "to do". As created beings, it is worship. It is marveling in the music of the spheres, the praise of creation, the creativity of the created simply because they have been given to us to enjoy. The natural result in true "schole", is true, real, meaningful, soul-changing understanding of the Creator. It energizes us for the daily work, it pushes us toward doing more, because it opens us to seeing the hand of the Creator in the necessary work of life. It was in seeing and understanding God that I was able to love the diapers and discipline. Praising through Mozart made it easy to praise through meal planning.  Struggling with Daniel opened my eyes to see God working through an angry pre-schooler.  Allowing the lyrics of "Who Am I" to touch my soul placed in me the grace, patience, and love I needed to be the wife my husband needed me to be.

So how do have the time? How do I not have the time?!  It is in taking an hour or two a day to struggle with philosophy, or to discuss the nature of God with a friend, or to sit and listen to Beethoven, or to walk by myself with only my thoughts,  that I am really able to do all the rest my life demands.

The only way I can "do" all things that need to be done, is if I am "being" who I was created to be.