Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Too busy?


Do you find that you are too busy? I have found myself there. It's amazing that we fly through a week and have to schedule time with God as if he were just another appointment in our lives. What sad lives we have when we get so busy that we have to "fit" God into our days.
But most of us are overwhelmed with the demands of life- commute to work, long work days, commute home, soccer, baseball, dinner, homework, a little time watching TV and then we crumble into bed...oh yeah, forgot time with God...maybe tomorrow.
Sound like your life? It's mine right now. I find I'm "fitting" God into my life instead of fitting my life around him. I feel poorer for it. It's not the way I want to live....life IS Christ. He's not someone to fit into what I do, he's all of it.
Now, don't let my thoughts frustrate you, because I know that many are living just as I do at times....too busy....no time for God, but let me share Jesus' words to his disciples (and I think they apply to us as well.) Jesus wants us to rest, to have time with him, to refresh. We cannot function without that time with him.

Mar 6:31 And He *said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while." (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)

4 comments:

Norm in FM said...

Mike, I think I live there most of the time. I so enjoy those rare weekends with little to do.

I try to structure my day so my God time happens near the start. I know if it does not happen then, it will not likely happen at all, and yes there are far too many days that it does not happen at all.

Schweers' Mom said...

I am reading an excellent book by Yancey about Prayer. He addresses this very issue about busy-ness. It's a lengthy quote - I'll have to bring you the book so you can check it out. It really was spot-on. Thanks for this thought, Mike. Like Norm, I "live there" too. Sometimes I tell myself that I have spent time with the Lord doing my Bible study. But then I think, we that TIME with the Lord or was that ACADEMIC time with the Lord??? (Not that any time is bad, but I know where my heart is for each of those times - for academics, it's sometimes a matter of checking something off a to-do list.)

GramCrackers said...

I don't think my lifestyle right now makes me all that busy, yet the days, weeks, even months go by and I find myself gasping for breath. But there are still so many distractions- work, family, hobbies, hockey games, etc. Why IS it so hard to make the time I need to spend with the Lord each day? Why do I struggle with making that my priority for the day? And how do I know when I've spent enough time? Does 10, 20, 30 minutes in the morning work? Or is it just as much the continual thought processes through out the day. Remembering that HE is God and considering what HE wants me to be doing and how I should be responding each moment. I'm thankful for His grace to get me through in spite of ME.

jlester01 said...

any moment i spend in quiet thought feels, well, guilty! I have a hard time remembering that time spent sitting quietly, reading, listening or praying is NOT a waste of time. In the back of my mind there is a voice (who's I wonder!) saying "get up! get busy!"