- We are taking a tiny detour to talk about something I have seen is constantly surfacing as a big issue: busyness. To be honest, I didn’t want to write this, I wanted to trek on in the identity series because that’s where I thought we needed to go. But God kept pushing back, trying to send me to this road instead (which I realize now is still well within the topic of identity), and I finally got the hint. This is not an episode about Sabbath or good use of our talents. It’s just to talk about being busy, why we’re busy, what we can do, and the hope that we have in Jesus when we are so tired.
- As a self-respected American adult woman, there is one badge of honor we all love and love to hate. In one word we say it all: busy.
- I was the queen of busy in high school, and I am so tempted to be that way now. But when I look back at that time of running around like crazy, always thinking of the next thing to do and never the present, I realize how lonely I truly was.
- A lot of things we are doing that keep us busy are good things!
- I watched Lysa TerKeurst speak on the topic “Unrush me” (you can find her book The Best Yes here), and what struck me the most was when she felt Jesus asking her “Do you love me more than these things that keep you busy?”
- What things are you holding on to just so you can put it on the altar of the god of busy? Do you love Jesus more than these? What are we willing to give up to decrease the power that busy has over us?
- Psalm 39:6-7 We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it. And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.
- Our identity is not based on our busyness.
- In It’s All Under Control by Jennifer Dukes Lee, she echoes this by saying “Your worth is not based on your usefulness.”
- Luke 10:38-40 describes two famous sisters: Mary and Martha
- While Mary chose the best option to sit and be with Jesus, Martha was “distracted by the big dinner she was preparing” (vs. 40). I am often a Martha, busying myself so much to serve Jesus that I forget to just be with him!
- Sometimes we have to think like a farmer and thin our busy lives.
- I found an article on a website called Gardening Know-How that described the apple thinning process. It describes how sometimes when a tree is so fruitful, you need to thin out some of the fruit to get the big juicy “King’s fruit” in the end. This includes hard choices, like needing to choose between two good looking apples.
- Satan loves when people are busy.
- It’s distracting, we forget to pray, we feel self-sufficient, and we get extremely overwhelmed when we reach our limit.
- a supersaturated solution is when a liquid, under extreme circumstances like heat, will take on more of a solute (the substance that dissolves in it) than what is naturally possible. In a hand-warmer, there is a metal disk that snaps that “just one more commitment” into the liquid. This causes an exothermic (hot) reaction and seizes up the liquid.
- We are not made to carry so many tasks, burdens, and responsibilities that if given just one more we may completely crumble.
- Studies have shown that people who take vacations live longer, have better working hearts, and surprisingly are more likely to get that promotion at work than the people who slave over the extra hours.
- My dear friend Amber Payne recently passed away from complications of the rejection of her double lung transplant. However, one of the last things she did was urge us: “We don’t have to run to earn rest; we run fueled by a posture of rest.”
- Jesus absolutely knows what it is to be busy and tired.
- Mark 4:38-40 describes how Jesus, after ministering to and being pursued by people all day, was so tired that he slept through a storm so violent that experienced fishermen were panicking!
- Jesus was the busiest, most needed, and had the most expectations on him of any human before or since. But He gives us multiple examples of taking time to rest. Here are just a couple:
- Mark 1:35- Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed.
- Luke 5:15-16- the news about him spread all the more so that crowds of people came to hear him and be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
- Mark 6:31-32- Then Jesus said “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t’ even have time to eat.
- Yes, Jesus was busy! He was also human and therefore got tired. He set an example of taking a break, resting when He knew it was needed. It’s ok to take a break! Even Jesus did, and He managed to still save the world.
- The word rest is foreign to us, or we sometimes just flat out ignore it.
- I realized that some words have “rest” in it for a reason. like Rest Stop. I have often used these to take a tiny break on long or late trips, especially when I was afraid of falling asleep. Taking a break did not mean that I gave up on my journey and spent the rest of my life living at a rest stop! It gave me the energy to get back on the highway and keep going safely.
- Restroom: a glorious place where we sit for a minute (sometimes you get the luxury of doing it without tiny humans trying to get in your lap). This is a place to sit and literally “dump” the toxins out! (Yes, I did make a potty pun).
- We are putting too much of our identity in the words busy and tired. These are things that we can and must change if we want to offer to God the king’s fruit of our efforts. Sometimes you need to choose between two good things so you can get best. Sometimes you’re tired and you just need a pit stop. That is not a failure! It is wisdom.
- I have often felt overwhelmed when reading about the Proverbs 31 woman in the Bible. However, while doing research on the topic I found out some interesting facts.Chabad.org has a conglomeration of a multitude of articles relating to Jewish faith, practices, and teachings. While looking on this website I learned two amazing things about this passage:
- This is not a list of things that we should do, it is an acrostic poem celebrating the things that a godly woman can do! Men sing this “Eishet Chayil” (woman of valor!) song over their wives and mothers to celebrate them on the Sabbath.
- There is nothing written in these words that are meant to pressure women into doing all of the things. It is written in awe and celebration at the wonderful things a woman is capable of doing.
- Sometimes we are just in seasons of life where rest does not come. But rest has been a part of the plan literally since creation. God does not expect us to be the Energizer Bunny. Nor is He disappointed when we have to say no to something that we just can’t add right now.
- He is the god of Psalm 23:2-3- He lets me rest in green meadows; he leads me beside peaceful streams. He renews my strength, He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.
- Jesus is the rest in our busy. He is the strength in our weakness. We definitely have good and important work to do, but we have never been asked to do it all.
- Matthew 11:28-30- Then Jesus said “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you- let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
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