Accountability: Maturity, Accountability, Failure, Quiet Time

Liz -- (enters mumbling, angry, paces, to self) What's the matter with you?! I can't believe you did it again! There is absolutely no hope for you!

Amy -- (enters) You know if the people in the restaurant (points to opposite exit) see you talking to yourself, they'll think you're a little strange.

Liz -- Why do you put up with me?

Amy -- Listen, if you don't have enough money to pay for your lunch, I'll buy.

Liz -- No. That's not it. I'm such a failure!

Amy -- Come on, let's go (points) into the restaurant and sit down. We'll talk about what's bothering you.

Liz -- It won't do any good. I'm a hopeless cause. I'm giving up.

Amy -- Giving up.

Liz -- Yes.

Amy -- Giving up on what?

Liz -- I've tried having a daily quiet time with the Lord, just like you said. But it's not working. I'm giving up. It's no use.

Amy -- So, you missed a quiet time during this last week, did you?

Liz -- One?! I missed three! I'm giving up. It's not worth the frustration.

Amy -- Oh, that's too bad.

Liz -- I mean, even when I have a quiet time, it's a big waste of time. My mind wanders. I think about my to-do list, my problems at work, all the work I have to do around the house, even my vacation plans.

Amy -- Surely, you must spend SOME time communicating with the Lord.

Liz -- Of the twenty minutes I set aside for Bible reading and prayer, about half of it is spent thinking about other things.

Amy -- Well, that's still ten minutes longer than you used to...

Liz -- It's hopeless! I quit.

Amy -- You're right.

Liz -- I am?

Amy -- Yes. Look, let's skip lunch. (turns away)

Liz -- Skip lunch?!

Amy -- Sure. In fact, I think I'll quit eating lunches altogether.

Liz -- Why? (approaches) Aren't you feeling well?

Amy -- Oh, sure. But my mind has been so preoccupied with work and running errands lately that I've missed three lunches during the last week.

Liz -- You have?

Amy -- Yes. I mean, if you can't eat lunch regularly, why eat lunch at all? In fact, I'm so discouraged over missing lunches that I think I'll quit eating altogether.

Liz -- You can't do that.

Amy -- Why not? It's just not worth the frustration. I mean, even on the days when I get away from the office and get to lunch, I often don't eat nutritious meals. So, if I can't eat nutritious meals all the time, I might as well give up eating meals altogether.

Liz -- Alright. I see your point.

Amy -- Point? What point? All I said was....

Liz -- I've been looking at my quiet times and my Bible reading and my prayer times all wrong. I've been treating them like an obligation.

Amy -- You mean, they're not just an obligation?

Liz -- No. I'll bet they're not an obligation for you!

Amy -- No. You're right. They're not. That's why I've been encouraging you to start a daily quiet time.

Liz -- Now that you mention it, I suppose I ought to stop treating my times with the Lord as just another appointment and start treating them as nutritious meals.

Amy -- That's what they are to me. Even a short snack is better than going hungry.

Liz -- I hadn't thought about it like that.

Amy -- Tell me, during the ten minutes of your quiet time without distractions, do you get ANY nourishment at all?

Liz -- Well, yes, I suppose I do. But the guilt over the OTHER ten minutes kind of cancels out the good parts for me.

Amy -- Then, why don't you start treating the distractions during your quiet time like junk food.

Liz -- Like junk food?

Amy -- Yes. Sometimes when I miss lunch I eat a chocolate bar at my desk. It has almost no food value for me. But it fills me up. It's not something I want to make a steady diet of. So, my goal is to minimize my intake of junk food and maximize my intake of nutritious food.

Liz -- I suppose I SHOULD be thinking in terms of nutrition, shouldn't I?

Amy -- That's how I solved the problem.

Liz -- You mean YOU used to have trouble with distractions during your quiet times?

Amy -- I still do. But when the junk food of distractions pollutes my mind, I just write myself a note about it and get back to nutritious food.

Liz -- You take notes?

Amy -- Sure. I found that if I just tried to drive a thought out of my head, it always came back. I found that if I wrote it down and made plans to deal with the distraction later, it freed me up to get back to real nutrition.

Liz -- That's a great idea. I'll get my to-do list out of my head and on paper. That will leave room in my mind for real nutrition.

Amy -- Speaking of nutrition, let's have lunch (points, crosses to exit)

Liz -- (follows) Say, you weren't really thinking of giving up lunch, were you?

Amy -- You weren't really thinking of giving up YOUR nutrition, were you?

Liz -- Perish the thought.

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