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Busy: How I Love to Proclaim It!
When surveying more than 300 adults for her book How Did I Get So Busy?, Valorie Burton found some interesting facts about people:
- Nearly 60% hadn’t had a seven-day vacation in the last year.
- Fifty-five percent had not had time to have a friend over in more than two months.
- Eighty percent were dissatisfied with the amount of time they get to spend with their spouse.
You know you are too busy when you can say “YES” to at least one of the following:
- “I feel as though I’m constantly trying to catch up.”
- “I’m regularly late to appointments and scheduled activities.”
- “There’s rarely a break in my schedule.”
- “My shoulders are not relaxed right now.”
- “My breathing is shallow often, as if I just finished running on the treadmill.”
- “My spouse and I haven’t taken a date night in the last month.”
- “I am not at all satisfied with the amount of quality time I am able to spend with my family.”
- “I don’t have time to exercise.
- The results above are reality even with the advancements in technology allowing us to accomplish more in less time. People simply add more to their plates. Christians are involved in this as well. We are trying to keep up with the expectations around us. We wind up doing too much all at the expense of two primary relationships: Our God and Our spouse.
With all these “time constraints,” we joy in proclaiming, “I’m busy right now!” to our children, or when we make a request of others and excuse ourselves by saying, “I know you’re busy right now.” We have grown accustomed to - and are glad to be - “busy” like everyone else. This way we do not feel so bad to be busy. They are. I am. We are all “running” here, there, and everywhere. What a life. Excuse me. That is “life” nowadays.
There is a better lifestyle, if you take time to read the pages of the New Testament. You will find how Jesus handled a demanding schedule. He was never in a rush. He did not take on more than He could handle. He was clear about His purpose. When He needed rest, He took it.
Was Jesus not asked a lot of questions? Did He not have a lot of people asking for healing? Did He not travel a lot on foot? Wasn’t His time on earth short? All of these questions might give attention to Jesus’ “busyness,” but truly focus on many of the acts of service Jesus rendered to others. They were all with purpose. His desire was to fulfill the plan of God (John 19:30). He did not do all we try to do before we have children, before our children reach 18, or after we retire, but what He accomplished was the will of His Father. It was accomplished in about three years, and we look at His work today in amazement. How can you do so much in such a short period of time? It is all a matter of direction, attention, and priority.
Our relationships with God and our spouse must be at the top of our priority list. If you are “too busy” for nurturing these two relationships, now is an urgent time for change. One thing is certain: God did not make a mistake when He created a 24-hour day. Neither did He make a mistake when He chose marriage as the foundation of family. Let’s remember something about your relationship with your spouse: One of its purposes was to remove man’s aloneness (Genesis 2:18-24). If we do not have time to enjoy this purpose, we have lost out on not only a relationship with our spouse, but a relationship with the God who gave us marriage.
Christians who have a hard time identifying busyness will go through life with excuses and get to the end of life with piles of regret. Rather than loving to proclaim our busyness, we need to Take Time To Be Holy! God expects you to redeem the time and think about your soul. This is why Matthew 11:28-30 says what it does. Read it. Consider the way of Christ.
