Busyness: The Soul Strangler

“I’m so busy!” It’s one of the most common phrases in the English language, and it’s a true statement for most of us. But under the surface of that statement, we are also signaling our importance, our work ethic, our commitment to hustle, our unavailability to help with whatever someone may ask of us. Busyness is not only common but revered. Who could fathom the alternative? “I’m busy or I’m failing.” “I’m busy or I’m slacking.” “I’m busy or I’m worthless.” “I’m busy or I’m robbing my children of the opportunity to be successful.” And so for years we’ve spoken these words, we’ve understood these words, and we’ve accepted these words as an unchangeable reality of the universe. Yet in the midst of our running to and fro from travel sports, endless lessons, committee meetings, volunteer service, side hustles, and DIY projects, we’ve failed to notice that the busyness we revere has slowly and steadily been choking the life out of our souls.

How do we know if we’ve been too busy? In a book called The Rest of God, Mark Buchanan writes:

One measure for whether or not you’re rested enough—besides falling asleep in board meetings—is to ask yourself this: How much do I care about the things I care about? When we lose concern for people, both the lost and the found, for the bride of Christ, for friendship, for truth and beauty and goodness; when we cease to laugh when our children laugh (and instead yell at them to quiet down) or weep when our spouses weep (and instead wish they didn’t get so emotional); when we hear news of trouble among our neighbors and our first thought is that we hope it isn’t going to invovle us—when we stop caring about the things we care about—that’s a signal we’re too busy. We have let ourselves be consumed by the things that feed the ego but starve the soul. Busyness kills the heart.

Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

Has busyness caused you to stop caring about the things you care about?

God has not abandoned us to be slaves of our busyness, and he never intended for us to be slaves in the first place. When his people were slaves in Egypt, he rescued them. Then, in his love and grace he commanded them to sabbath, or stop, one day out of seven. What a gift to bestow on a people who formerly were slaves working seven days a week! The God who loved and redeemed his people knows the soul-strangling power of busyness. It is him who gave us the gift of sabbath rest. But if ever there was a gift left unopened by his people, this one would top the list. We have exchanged the life-giving power of sabbath and rest for the boa constrictor of busyness.

Until now.

Here in this moment the world has been turned upside down. Our God in his grace has given the world a gift. Not the Coronavirus; but rest from our busyness. All around the world governments are calling on people to stay in their homes, to avoid crowds of people, to stay away from work. In our own community the beaches have been closed, restaurants have been closed, sports and extracurriculars for adults and children have been canceled along with all school activities. Even our churches have had to stop keeping people busy. I could not have imagined a scenario in which all of these things could have happened at the same time, all around the world. And yet, they have. God has given us the gift of sabbath. A forced rest for many of us, but a rest nonetheless. True, some are forced to work overtime during these days, some are exposed to the virus in the line of duty, and others are scrambling to do quality work from a less-than-ideal home office. Worse still, others are or will be out of work altogether. And yet, I believe we have an unprecedented opportunity to be transformed by this forced sabbatical. And I don’t want us to miss the moment.

Here is my encouragement to you in this strange season of sabbath: embrace it. Avoid the temptation to busy yourself and put on the yoke of slavery once again. Many of you don’t have to be busy! Revel in the fact that you get to stay home with the ones you love but often neglect. Delight in the duty to worship as a family this Sunday morning without the hustle of getting out the door. Celebrate the quiet evenings of dinner around the table and all-too-rare conversations. Bake cookies with the kids. Lay in bed longer with your spouse. Pray on behalf of your family, community, and world in this crisis. Dust off the board games and break out the books. Reach out to the ones you love and the ones who may need your help. Because right now you have one thing that you haven’t had in a long time:

time.

And for that, we can give thanks to God, who offers rest from the soul strangling grip of busyness.