Why Are You So Dang Busy?

Good question, right?  Everyone is so busy nowadays…  And, if you don’t appear too busy, they assume something is not quite right with you.  Have you ever stopped to ponder why we are so busy?  Busy, busy, busy; no time for anything!  Is it good to be that busy?  Does busy mean we are getting things done and making progress?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Maybe this old world has taught us that all that frenetic activity means we are making moves and getting closer to our desired state.  Here’s a thought?  Many of us dream of being rich, right?  With that lofty idea we imagine a life where we can do just whatever we want, when we want.  We don’t picture ourselves running from this thing to that thing.  Definitely not!  We see ourselves vacationing with friends and family, relaxing on a sandy beach.  Or we visualize pursuing things that really interest us that we “never had time” to do before.  Hmmm.

It might just be that we are getting our leg pulled.  With the advent of electronic media and our ability to know everything going on everywhere; or social media where we follow each other’s lives replete with “likes” and “comments” and status updates, we can become overwhelmed with information.  As soon as we finish one house project, we start another one patterning the project after that home makeover show.  We go to work all day and carry out our responsibilities, then get home to carry those out too.  Saturday becomes the day to do all the stuff you couldn’t do all week.  And, what you didn’t get done on Saturday you can do on Sunday.  Then it is time to start all over again.  You can discern our prevailing mind-set with the language we speak.  “It’s time to get back on my grind,” implying that success follows a continual “grinding” until we reach some goal.  Or, “everyday I’m hustling, hustling,” which carries the message that good things must be hustled after until they reluctantly come to pass.  Now, I’m smart enough to know that ‘real’ life isn’t about sitting in the chair all day.  Sure we need to go to work.  Absolutely we should fix the leaky sink or the hole in the wall.  There’s cooking, dishes, chores, cleaning and laundry that all cry for attention.  Everyone has many things to do in a day.  It’s not so much the work we accomplish, but our mind-set while we are doing the work.  The reality is that most folks are so dang busy that they don’t have time to think.  There’s no reflection concerning which direction we are heading.  There’s no quiet time to consider, to pray, to invest our hearts into things we want them invested into.  Instead we scramble around stressed, anxious and not even aware that all of this is going on.

Our core problem is that we have bought into a man-made doctrine that states that you must almost kill yourself to achieve things in life and if you are not overly busy, you are heading for a disaster.  It’s like relaxation is some kind of curse reserved for the lazy; the failures in life.  And, we wonder why folks die so early.  What good is the fortune grandpa made if he died at 52?  Maybe there is something behind all this mad dash for things; for status; for supposed success.  Maybe, just maybe if something can keep you busy enough, you won’t take time to think (something only us humans can do).  Without thought you may just spend a lifetime mindlessly fulfilling supposed obligations with only a brief respite to the mountains or to the beach.  Why do we love camping so much?  Is it the s’mores; the booze by the fire pit at night?  Or is it the absence of all that stuff we “have” to do?  You decide.

While we get to enjoy comforts formerly only dreamed of by people, we have also allowed ourselves to become too stressed out.  In short, we have got it all backwards.  Our minds; our thinking; our beliefs are the very essence of the things we achieve in life.  It isn’t the grind of the 100 hour work week that makes you successful, it’s the beliefs you have associated with your work; with your life.  A little believing and positive expectation goes a long, long way.  But hey, who has time for that?  😉  Life was not designed to be a helter skelter of anxious activity that concludes in an untimely death.  Life was meant to be a time for enjoyment, for relection, for learning.  Life is to be lived with love and care for our fellow-man.  So many people say they lack purpose but in reality they just haven’t taken the time to “see” their purpose.  How could they?  We want to control everything, fix everything, worry about everything…  Maybe if I am hypervigilant and stressed and eternally busy, bad things won’t happen.  Maybe through my obsessive effort I can ensure all will be okay for everyone involved.  Maybe not.

Let God control the world people and just relax…  Maybe the things you want most in life; your hopes, your dreams; maybe those things want you as well, if you will just slow down enough to see them coming.  You are killing yourself digging in that hole for the gold and it’s not even there.  Slow yourself down and relax.  Let some stuff go.  Live in the moment and enjoy it.  Take time to reflect on your life.  Take a quiet walk outside or a drive (brrrr.)  Turn off the TV, unplug the laptop and silence the ringer on the cell phone.  Make the time you need to think and think deeply.  You may just hear some things that change your life.

Oh me?  I’m just relaxing on this beautiful Saturday morning…