Part 2 - Busyness: To Whom Be All The Glory?

“I’m too busy.” “I have so much to do.” “I don’t have any time.” Busyness: The excuse, the oppressor, the enemy, the distraction, or the freedom and gift. “Freedom and gift?” you say. “I understand the first four, but freedom and gift? Really???!!!”

Yes, the freedom and gift of busyness. You see, our trouble with the concept of busyness is not simply the fact that we’re busy. The problem is that we are misguided in what we are busy with. In America, we busy ourselves with things that oppress, things that wear on us and weigh us down. We busy ourselves with things that have no lasting value, no ultimate worth. We serve the almighty schedule, planner, and bank account. The calendar stands over us as an enemy that we cannot escape, a prison if you will. The rewards we accumulate for this type of busyness never last, never satisfy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If we only would busy ourselves with the correct things, then we would be able to enjoy the freedom and gift of busyness. God’s Word shares with us many things we should be busy with. It says to pray without ceasing, meditate on His Word day and night, seek to know God and draw near to Him, keep watch for His return, share the gospel, guard our hearts and minds, live in community as the Bride of Christ, glorify God in all you do, and to seek to store up treasures in Heaven rather than on earth.

Freedom of Rightly Guided Busyness

If our focus were more in the proper place and we would be busy going about these things as well as the other things God has called us to (this certainly isn’t a complete list), we would experience the freedom of serving God and walking with Him. That’s right: freedom to serve, another of the seeming paradoxes we see in Scripture. The song by Bob Dylan puts it succinctly: “you’re gonna’ have to serve somebody.” This is not an endorsement, just a clear statement of something true. We indeed are gonna’ serve somebody. Scripture tells us we are slaves to sin outside of Christ. Regardless of what we are slaves to, we will be under God’s authority no matter what we do.

Most of us are slaves to success, money, our careers, the pursuit of happiness and/or satisfaction of lusts, or to the other sins that so beset us here on this earth. But if you’re a Christian, it is these very things that Christ has freed us from. We are now free to serve Him who is the only source of any form of true success or happiness. We will serve somebody, so it is advantageous for us to serve the one who is the all powerful source of all things, the perfectly just and perfectly righteous master, the only one with the authority to give and take away, and who Himself is the greatest gift that could ever be given.

Gift of Rightly Guided Busyness

As I pondered the things that the Bible commands us to busy ourselves with, I couldn’t help but think: “What would happen in my life if I spent more time keeping busy with these things that God has commanded me to be busy with?” I realized that by telling us to be busy doing these particular things, God was actually giving us the gift of Himself. He tells us to do these things because the result is a return to the original intended order: we would know God personally, have an ongoing relationship with Him, and be able to accomplish what He created us for; to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. What a fabulous gift!

We must ask God to correct our near-sightedness. Our problem is that we cannot see past the here and now. We cannot see the value of the long term and how it will be impacted by what we are currently doing. We seek instant gratification and satisfaction rather than putting in some work to reap far greater gratification and satisfaction in the future. As Scripture tells us, our earthly life is a vapor, a mere breath, here today, gone tomorrow.

In conclusion, busyness in and of itself is not a problem. We are not called to be lazy. But the things we are busy with are a litmus test, so to speak, of what is important to you. When the things we busy ourselves with are balanced rightly, we will be growing in our relationship with God, glorifying Him in our workplace, homes, and churches, and stewarding all the resources that God has graciously given us in a way that honors and glorifies Him. When this correct balance happens, we will also be experiencing the freedom of serving God and the gift of His surpassing value and the joy it produces.

I sincerely long for the church to experience the joy and freedom that we are called to and I write this as Paul did to the Corinthians “for your joy”. To God be all the glory!

Busyness: To Whom Be All The Glory?

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I recently had a conversation with a student from Haiti that is studying here in the states where he said essentially the following: ‘Americans are so busy, rushing from place to place, always hurrying at a dizzying pace. Why don’t you slow down and take time to serve God more often? Why don’t churches get together more than once a week on Sunday morning in America? Where is there room for serving one another and bearing one another’s burdens and follow all the commands we are given in Scripture about the things the Church should be doing for one another and the community?’

This conversation really got me thinking. Why do we lock ourselves in this prison of busyness? I began to think about the reasons we hurry about as if we are out of our minds half the time. The list of pursuits that keep us busy and rushing about seems to be summed up best as follows: Money, happiness, and self fulfillment (and out of these spring career, success, our own glorification, possessions,  luxuries, pleasure, and pretty much all other pursuits).

We are caught in a pit that we ourselves are digging. The church is as guilty of this as the secular world. We have 400 people in our church and 10 of them have significant roles in serving the church and reaching out to the community because everyone else is too busy. O.K. so maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, but not as much a one as we might deceive ourselves into thinking. We’ve bought the lies of the world and not only are we miserable in our busy pursuit of the things of this world, we are robbing God of glory by saying in effect “yes, you have it right secular world, the one who dies with the most toys really does win.”

We spit on the cross by denying its transforming power in our lives and the surpassing worth of following and serving Christ. We might say “Lord, you are the most valuable thing, the only thing that truly matters” on Sunday morning in church, but our lives speak that everything but Him is worth everything to us during the remainder of the week. It’s no wonder people don’t hear what we are saying; our actions drown out the words we are speaking and kill our witness. How is the secular world supposed to see Christ as supremely valuable if the people claiming to be the people of God aren’t living in a way that shows they really believe He’s supremely valuable?

In the next post, I’m going to delve into this topic further, but I want to focus on redeeming busyness for us. I don’t think it’s busyness in and of itself that is the problem. No, I think it’s what we busy ourselves with that is the problem. Here is a taste of what’s to come in the next post:

“I’m too busy.” “I have so much to do.” “I don’t have any time.” Busyness: The excuse, the oppressor, the enemy, the distraction, or the freedom and gift. “Freedom and gift?” you say. “I understand the first four, but freedom and gift? Really???!!!”

Yes, the freedom and gift of busyness. You see, our trouble with the concept of busyness is not simply the fact that we’re busy. The problem is that we are misguided in what we are busy with. In America, we busy ourselves with things that oppress, things that wear on us and weigh us down. We busy ourselves with things that have no lasting value, no ultimate worth. We serve the almighty schedule and planner, the calendar stands over us as an enemy that we cannot escape, a prison if you will. The rewards we accumulate for busyness never last, never satisfy. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

(Picture from sovereigngraceministries.org)