When Busyness Threatens
“The biggest deception of our digital age may be the lie that says we can be omni-competent, omni-informed, and omni-present. We cannot be any of these things. We must choose our absence, our inability, and our ignorance—and choose wisely.”
―Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy
It’s that time of year: the beginning of new things. New school years, new projects, new events, the change of seasons. “Busy” will soon be the word of the week as summertime draws to a close.
I love and hate busyness. I’m the type of person who wants to be involved in anything and everything. I lead and take part in community and Bible study groups, I take initiative at work when things gear up, and I’m a social butterfly. But even I can’t do everything, and being so busy tends to exhaust me. This issue is only exacerbated by my poor time management skills.
Our world wants us to stay busy. It’s a big problem in the American workplace, which is merely a reflection of our go-getter culture. It’s an issue that can easily become toxic. Being busy feeds our egos, gives us a sense of worth, and distracts us from the issues that often plague our souls. Entire books have been written on this topic, so I won’t belabor the point.
But I don’t need a book by some best-selling lifestyle guru to know that busyness makes me tired and burnt out and keeps me from slowing down and enjoying life. In fact, busyness and the many distractions that come with living in the Western world are what kept me from launching this website and putting myself out there in the first place (the realization of my own busyness—for better or for worse—actually inspired this post). I’ve tried multiple times to start writing online for fun. None of them panned out because I got “busy” and couldn’t be consistent. It remains to be seen if this website will fizzle out or become something more.
All I know is I want to learn to slow down and trust in the Lord, and hopefully write about my journey along the way. Not easy to do in our self-made, FOMO-filled society. Dare I rebel and refuse to kowtow to the whims of a culture that regularly causes burnout, fuels anger and addiction, and treats people like pawns? Dare I obey a less-discussed command of the Lord and actually practice Sabbath rest and daily communion with Him?
Image credit: Sketchy Sermons (@sketchysermons, sketchysermons.com)
Being still and quiet before the Lord is fast becoming a lost skill in Christian culture, a culture that is rapidly merging with Western culture at large. I’m not going into that can of worms today, but I do want to serve as a reminder (to myself as much as to anyone reading this) that it’s okay to slow down. And in fact, it’s necessary. We were made to do and go, but we were also made to be.
In slowing down, we become more capable of processing our emotions and the challenges of our lives in a healthy way. We become able to lift our noses from the grindstones we’ve pressed them against and smell the roses instead.
Slowing down also gives us a chance to practice selflessness. This world encourages us everyday to think of ourselves before anyone else. That’s not how the Lord instructs His people to live. Choosing to look beyond ourselves, towards Him and towards the people around us, will give us a new perspective and remind us that we’re not alone and this life isn’t about us.
So take some time to breathe. Journal a bit. Read a book. Log off social media. Take a long walk or a nice hot bath. Light some candles. Watch a little TV (though maybe go easy on the bingeing). Spend time with loved ones. Open your Bible (*gasp*) and spend some time in prayer.
Busyness can wait.