The Business of Busyness

I can’t stand being busy for very long. Down time is something I need in order to stay sane. It is in those times of being free from activity and commitments when I can hear myself think. In today’s culture of “Go Go Go!”, it is so easy to go through each day running around everywhere doing everything you feel like you should do, while not doing anything that has lasting value.

How is it that we can stay so busy running around doing so much, and yet do nothing that has eternal value? I call this state “busyness” I think busyness is the default mode we fall into unless we are intentional about what we use our time for. It's like being on one of those moving walkways at the airport- just going with the flow, relying on external energy to move laterally when we should be using internal energy to climb stairs and make a vertical move. There are many things we know we should do, like spending time with God everyday in prayer, studying the Bible more, spending time with a friend who is down, etc, but we make excuses and say “I just don’t have time for that, maybe when things slow down.” The truth is, we are all given the same amount of time and we aren’t ever going to get more than we have right now. It is the management of that time that we need to work on. As we procrastinate making the changes we know we should make, more time slips away…

We always make time for the things that are the most important to us.

When’s the last time that you went over a month without getting groceries? How about watching the most recent episode of your favorite TV show? Going to the gym or out for a run? I know people who get up while it is still dark outside to exercise every day. (Yes, they are crazy. But they are in better shape than I am, so, eh...whatever.) What we do with our time reveals the priorities of our heart, unfortunately. We always seem to have enough time for the things that are important to us. This is because we make the time. Sometimes this can be very convicting when we start to examine exactly what we do with all the minutes in our day. How much time is spent on social media sites when you add up all the moments throughout the day? I’m not saying Facebook is bad (I love Facebook!) or watching TV is wrong, but consider exactly what it is that you do with all your minutes in the day before you use the excuse “I don’t have time”. We have the time for what we are called to do in our lives. God has given us the time. What are you doing with it? Are you coasting along in default mode and just ending up in front of the computer or the TV when you get a moment of free time? What is it that you wish you had more time for? How can you be intentional about fitting it into your daily schedule?

Be intentional

Perhaps an awareness of what you actually spend your time doing is all it may take for you to make some needed changes. For others, it will take a plan- an intentional way of doing things. I know for me, having two small (and very active!) boys around the house makes any quiet time in the day impossible unless I plan it out. I used to think “Well, I’ll see how the day goes and if I get a moment to myself, I’ll go ahead and read my Bible for a while then”. I think I just heard a collective chuckle from all you moms out there. Yeah, I went months without reading my Bible while having this mindset. Something always came up. The truth is, I wasn’t making it a priority to do any studying. Planning ahead and yes, getting up early (ugh!) is the only way to make quiet reading time possible in this house.

Simplify

Some of us are just way too busy. We see something come along that seems fun and beneficial so we go for it. The problem with this is that spreading ourselves too thin prevents us from putting a whole lot of ourselves into any one thing. A phrase I remember from a long time ago- “It may be a GOOD thing, but is it GOD thing?” God knows how much we can handle and he has already equipped us for what He has called us to do. Just seek Him and find out only what it is that He has for you to do and get rid of all the other stuff weighing you down. That seems too simple, but that’s it. Nothing else to say about it.

Certainly, there are responsibilities we have to take care of every day, but let’s examine our priorities and make sure we aren’t getting too busy for God. I like the below verse- maybe I should start out every day by reading it!

Romans 13:11- But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. (The Message)