What Price Is “Too Busy?”

Over the course of the past two months, the phrases, “I’m too busy,” and “I know you are so busy,” have seemed to grate on my nerves like fingernails scraping down a chalkboard—you know that feeling—making me wince and cringe more than ever before.

We have many metaphors and parables, especially Jesus’ words to Martha as her sister sat eagerly at his feet, something she was “too busy” to do. But most of all we have Jesus’ warning about being too busy in Luke 8:14:

“The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life and so they never grow into maturity.” (NLT)

We might think these words are directed toward new believers, surely not to those who have accepted God’s call of upon their lives and who have been walking with Jesus for many years, but indeed, many of us are not growing into maturity because we, too, are so pressed, crowded and preoccupied by the cares, riches and pleasures of this life. Perhaps we, more than any others, need to heed these words of caution from Jesus. There is no doubt that most of us are “too busy.”

In Centering Prayer in Daily Life and Ministry, Thomas Keating writes about a way of going through the day, giving our close attention to each task, “disregarding every other thought” which leads to “a deeper level of contemplation.” (p. 17) When we are going through the day allowing the message to be crowded out by the cares of our lives, or of other stresses pulling on us, we become those seeds in the thorns, destined never to grow into maturity.

Keating goes on to explain what contemplative service really is:

How we work—attention. Why we work—intention. This leads to the third and final quality of contemplative service: Who is doing the work?…Without intending anything special, without necessarily doing something special, people begin to find God in us as we humbly do what we are supposed to be doing. Complete submission to God allows the divine energy to radiate, and others seeing this have a sense of being in touch with God or in the midst of a community where divine love exists. This is what a Christian community is supposed to be, whether it is a family, parish, or organization. This third way of working or acting in daily life might be called “transmission.” (p. 18)

A life that is being lived on overload—overwhelmed by the daily “to-do’s”—cannot be a life lived in contemplative service where the how, why and transmission work together with the Holy Spirit as he grows us into spiritual maturity.

Questions for Reflection:

Am I currently living at a pace that others observing me would say I am “too busy?” Have I actually heard that said of me, either about me or to me directly?

Have I gotten really good at multi-tasking?

Is it hard to fall asleep at night because of the pressures of the day and the stress of tomorrow?

Conversely~

What or who is my first waking thought? The first words I utter upon awaking?

Is there time in my day to spend exclusively with God, where HIS agenda is paramount?

Am I able to allow God to use me in other’s lives spontaneously because I have extra time built in to each day’s schedule?

Memory Verse:

“So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.”

1 Peter 1:14-15a

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