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<\/p>\nNearly everyone I know is too busy. Ask someone how they\u2019re doing and it seems like 9 out of 10 times they\u2019ll say good or bad and then add on, \u201cI\u2019m just really busy, ya know?\u201d And I do know, because I feel pretty busy at times too. It just seems like there is always so much to do. And while we can complain right and left about how we are stressed and tired out by our busyness, I think if we really investigated the situation what we would actually find out is that most of us, in fact, have a love for busyness.<\/p>\n
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I love music. So it tends to work itself into a lot of aspects of my life. I\u2019m constantly listening to it, singing it, buying it, playing it, and sometimes even writing it. Stay with me here, I\u2019m about to make the connection. However, I do not love cleaning. And so while I may clean here and there I\u2019m not compulsive about it like some people I know. They actually enjoy it and will do it to relax. Bizarre, I know.<\/p>\n
Now since I don\u2019t like cleaning I don\u2019t find myself doing it all that often. But while some of us would say we don\u2019t like being busy why is it that we find ourselves surrounded by it – like my love for music – rather than barely going towards it on occasions – like my affections for cleaning? I would argue it\u2019s because deep down we actually do love being busy. Here are some reasons why this seems to be true.<\/p>\n
Sadly, this is what so many tend to do in their life. There are those parts we\u2019d rather not look at – our failing marriage, our sense of loneliness, our failures, our sins, our lack of accomplishment, and so on. We each have our list of these. And sometimes to avoid having to deal with them we just stay busy. We look around to this and that and all those things we need to do so that we don\u2019t have to stop and look at what junk is sitting in the corners of our lives.<\/p>\n
With busyness we feel important. We feel like without us things just wouldn\u2019t be the same. We tell ourselves that if we just kicked back and relaxed then things would fall apart soon after! We think of all the people depending on us to produce and to do and think of how big our role in this life is.<\/p>\n
And oh how we love to tell people we\u2019re busy!! \u201cI\u2019d love to but I\u2019m not sure I can. I\u2019m just really busy.\u201d Oh, I see, you\u2019re just very important and so you will have to check your calendar. Our busyness, our unavailability, our demand all seems to be a living and active resume that we can give to anyone at any time. And the busier we are the more important we appear.<\/p>\n
But here is why our love for busyness can be really damaging to our God-given identities:<\/p>\n
Those parts we don\u2019t want to look at – they need dealt with. They don\u2019t need to be breezed over in a busied rush. They need careful attention so they can be addressed and solved or healed. Otherwise we let mold grow in the corners of our inner lives.<\/p>\n
One day we will die and\/or be unable to accomplish all we can right now. Then we will realize that life goes on. This is why we must sleep. This is why God commanded us to Sabbath. It\u2019s all to remind us that our significance simply can\u2019t be grounded in our busyness and actions.<\/p>\n
Who cares that you\u2019re busy? You do. I<\/i> care that I\u2019m<\/i> busy. But no one else does. So I\u2019ve cut “busy” out of my vocabulary. Because 9 out of 10 times I was saying it subconsciously to appear more important than I really am. Jesus simply must<\/b> have been the one with the greatest right to saying He was busy and not a single time do you ever get the sense that He was too busy for anything or anyone. That ought to tell us something!<\/p>\n
Busyness can make us feel good (believe it or not) in the immediate moment. Ultimately, however, it leaves us with hands that are so busy doing that they don\u2019t have time to have the blessings of God poured into them. Slow down, cut out, simplify, stop, meditate, Sabbath, quiet down – and live. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"