Sorry, Busy

Do Not Conform 

Our culture today can be very focussed on hustle. If you aren’t achieving something or progressing and heading towards a better life, then what are you doing with your time? What is your focus? What is your purpose? 

Having a ‘doing’ mentality is not necessarily a bad thing. Without the accomplishers in our world we probably wouldn’t be as far along in technology, medicine and creativity as we are. But when the ‘doing’ seeps into your identity and becomes who you are, perhaps we need to reevaluate? 

As we read in the account of Mary and Martha, kingdom culture is not necessarily all about the hustle. Jesus actively and publicly affirms Mary for choosing to be still and sit at His feet, rather than dash around getting things done like Martha.  

I can imagine Jesus, in all of His gracious glory, not even being bothered if there were no food on the table or drinks to refresh Him. I imagine that He would have been so much more interested in Martha taking a seat and ‘being’ with Him than serving Him. 

We are human beings, not human doings.  

Work, work, work 

I am not commenting from a position of having it all figured out when it comes to rest and fighting our busy culture. By no means. I have definitely been guilty of going from emails to calls to my scheduled activities without a second glance at my bible in the morning. Sadly, this kind of pace and prioritising does not set me up to win. 

As a writer, I rely on God for ideas and creative inspiration and have had to learn to stop…pause…wait…and consult with God. The alternative is writing from my own not-so-clever ideas and ideals which does not benefit anyone. 

Do you include God in your day to day tasks? 

Setting the pace 

Let’s take a look at creation. 

Right from the beginning of time God set the pace for humanity. 

Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 

(Genesis 2:1-3 NKJV) 

Six days. 144 hours. That is a considerable amount of time to complete the tasks that our schedule demands of us, wouldn’t you say. Then we have one 24-hour period to stop and rest. It’s God-ordained! 

If God took a day to rest out of His creation experience, I doubt that anything we have on our agenda would battle to compete with that! 

Counterproductive? 

I wonder if taking that day to rest, that hour at the start of our day, that proper lunch break, could actually make us more productive. When we are operating out of a place of rest rather than rushing, I truly believe that we are more effective. 

It may be frustrating for you to slow down a little at various points in the day to catch a breath, especially if you have children or other kinds of dependants that need you to serve them, but I’m confident that, if you do, you will gain so much more energy. 

It’s useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone.
Don’t you know he enjoys giving rest to those he loves? 

(Psalm 127:2 MSG) 

Now, I’m not advocating that we take a nap at our desks but rather highlight this verse to establish that, again, it would seem that kingdom culture goes against the grain of modern culture and encourages us to rest. 

You never know, your productivity levels may soar if you just take time to pause.  

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