The Glorification of Busy
9:40 AM
So my mom is usually right about most things. Sometimes I forget that her wisdom is vastly greater than my own. Hi mom, I know you read these, and you’re right.
My mom always tells me that I overcommit. She’s always worried that I don’t get enough sleep, that I run myself too thin and that I don’t take care of myself. And most of the time, I can ignore her worry and her warnings [the perks of living a few thousand miles from your parents]. BUT the other day, I had a conversation with someone so precious to me. And she told me that she never felt like she could ask me for any of my time because she knew I was busy and didn’t want to be an inconvenience. Something in my heart has been convicted ever since.
When people have become an inconvenience, I have become too busy.
I go to a school that glorifies being busy. Right? Lee student’s know what I mean, and if you went to a liberal arts school, you can probably relate as well. I am a part of a community that lives to exhaust ourselves for one another. And I’m telling you that, most of the time, there is nothing more beautiful than that. But it’s also dangerous. I’m leaving that community in three months and I have realized that I have spent so long building a kingdom that is all my own. With all my jobs, positions, clubs, classes; I have created for myself this overflowing schedule of events that lead to accomplishments. And yet, the moment I leave this place, my kingdom can not come with me. Could it be that I have built this kingdom as security for my soul? Perhaps, my schedule has acted as a type of insurance, that if I put in the time now, things will be easier later. But the accumulation only leads me proud and pretty exhausted, it doesn’t leave me free. After Lee, people are not going to care that I aced my physiology test (or failed it for that matter). They are not going to care that I had four jobs or made myself sick off of 5$ cheezie’s pizza. And yet, why do I still desire to build up my own kingdom?
I’ve become attached to busy.
You know the Facebook craze of posting relevant articles pertaining to the “Ten things you must do in your twenties”, or “The 25 simple steps to happiness”? You know them. You’ve read them and reposted them. At least I know that I have. And they have offered me truth, but sometimes, I feel like I can not even accomplish or live up to one of them. And sometimes, I just want to throw my laptop at the wall and stop this overstimulation, stop the busy and the stress and the imagined expectation I have of myself.
So instead of giving you the ten ways to stop the glorification of busy, the five ways to regain your life, or the twenty things I need to do to be productive today, I’m going to give you the two thing that will cover you, that will make you fully alive, that will create the upmost happiness, take them or leave them:
Give up and give yourself grace.
Bob Goff says in his book “Love Does”,
Actually the real game of Bigger and Better that Jesus is playing with us usually isn’t about money or possessions or even our hopes. It’s about our pride. He asks if we’ll give up that thing we’re so proud of, that thing we believe causes us to matter in the eyes of the world, and GIVE IT UP to follow Him. He’s asking us [Here’s the whole point], “ Will you take what you think defines you, leave it behind, and let Me define who you are instead?”
Woah. This forces me to ask myself, and in turn you, Are you taking care of your soul? Doing productive things could never be bad, right? But have your accomplishments, your built up “insurance” become something that has defined you? Have they caused pride, or have they become your identity? And if they have, did you know there is grace?
Yesterday was a snow day for us in Cleveland. I needed it, because forcing myself to stop, gives me motivation to give up this glorification of busy and turn my eyes heavenward.
If you need me today, I’ll be in a puddle on the floor.
Just learning new things every day over here in Tennessee.
Today is grace filled, and tomorrow will be too. Hallelujah
Also, happy valentines day
0 comments