Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Busyness”
Our Bible verse for today: “Rejoice always! Pray constantly! Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “Are you too busy?”
I read Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 and I have to believe he was intentionally using the literary device of hyperbole. He was using exaggerated language to make a point. How could he not be? Seriously, we’re to rejoice “always”? Pray “constantly”? Give thanks in “everything”? That doesn’t describe me and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t describe you either.
Paul was realistic about the human condition and so I’m sure he wasn’t saying that we should be able to maintain such a state of mind and heart continuously, 24/7. Instead he was describing a general condition that should be true for the follower of Jesus in general. We are called to live a joyful life; prayerfully thoughtful, sensitive and alert; a person who is conscious of their blessings and is thankful for them.
But even then, that still doesn’t really describe many of us. Many of us are not “generally” joyful, prayerful, and thankful. Instead we are stressed, worried, worn out, and anxious. And the primary reason is that, for many of us, we’re too busy. We have allowed our lives to become so filled-up that we’re constantly running from one activity to another, always under pressure, and never really happy or content.
Busyness is a killer. It steals our joy and limits our effectiveness. We end up trying to do so many different things that we’re not doing any of them particularly well. How does that happen? In the military it’s called “mission creep”. You start out with a clear objective in mind but as time goes on you notice something else that you believe is worthy of your attention and so you add it into your mix. Then soon there is something else, and so that gets added in too. And then there is another thing, and then another, and pretty soon you’ve ended up with a mission (or a life) that doesn’t resemble what you originally had in mind at all. It just started creeping and growing all on its own and now it’s this wild, overgrown, tangled thing that’s a mess. Can I get an “amen”?
I’m preaching to the choir here. I’m writing this to myself. I have a lot of trouble saying “no” to other people and to myself. There are so many good things I believe deserve my attention; and so many others that I think I really ought to do even though I don’t want to; and I have a really bad habit of letting other people control too much of my agenda. I’ll bet you struggle with some of the same issues.
For the rest of this month we will explore this subject of excessive busyness. We’ll talk about what it is, how it happens, and what we should do about it. And of course, we will consider it all from God’s perspective.
For many of us achieving the general frame of mind Paul was describing in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 will only happen when we start doing less instead of more.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 