Rerunning an important topic

Ok, so I was perusing my xanga site from this time last year, and found this blog. I think I have some new readers since then, so I thought I'd repost this since I liked it so much last year. I still feel exactly the same way, and this has been one of the thoughts running through my head recently.

Busyness

Ahh. Now that I have a few non-busy moments... I can write about busyness. :) On Tuesday, I was putting together a calendar to go on the refrigerator at our house. I realized that in order to plan events for the next few weeks, it would be good for us to have a "master" calendar, color-coded by person (I'm such a dork!), with all of our activities until after Christmas. As I was creating the calendar I saw how incredibly busy everyone in my house is. And the first emotion I felt was pride. "Look at how busy we are! Goodness, my roommates are such important people! And I'm an important person, too! We have so much to do at work, for Chorale, and socially. We're so popular! I bet other people want to be just like us!" And then I realized that I had fallen into the mindset of today's American Culture. The busier you are, the more important you are. And that is where you should find your significance.

I was glad that I realized the error of my mindset so quickly (I would have to attribute that to the Holy Spirit). Oftentimes, when I fall into this kind of mindset, it takes some kind of crash and burn event for me to realize that I'm in it.

I think that the idea of busyness=importance=significance is bred into us by today's society. It can start in youth sports... "You only play T-ball? Well, I play T-ball and soccer."...continue on into high school "The more extra curricular activities you have, the better college you're going to get into"...become magnified in college "Oh my goodness! I have 8 tests, 2 papers, a track meet, a sorority council meeting, a band concert, and I have to stand on my head for 2 hours! You only have 5 tests and 3 papers? Well, I guess I'm more important..." and is there through every stage of life. I've only listed the ones I've experienced and moved through so far.

College was when my eyes were really opened to this. Everyone was running around like crazy, stretched way too thin- a mile wide and an inch deep. And, everyone was always competing about who was busiest. I'm guessing that's because we find our significance in how busy we are. We want to find our significance somewhere, and a busy schedule is an easy place to find it, instead of our identity in Christ.

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm not saying it's necessarily wrong to be busy. This isn't a cheesy line about "Jesus is the reason for the season...don't be so busy that you forget about Him!" or anything like that. I like being busy. I always have. Not because I try to find my significance there (although I do struggle with that occasionally), but because I love living life at a fast pace. I need downtime occasionally, but for the most part I like to stay on the go. I think the key is what you are spending your time doing. If it's not something you enjoy, or something that brings glory to God, then maybe it's something that is done just for the sake of being busy. And, being busy is different when you have a family, too. I can stay really busy because I'm single. There is no one else who depends on me for my time. If I had a family right now, I know my life would look different, and it would be exactly how it should be...and busy in a different way.

But, at the same time, I know I shouldn't be so busy that I don't have time for God. And I struggle with that, too. Thankfully, I had some pretty good discipline knocked into my head about that in college, so I understand its importance. I also know that it's important to slow down sometimes. I have a habit of turning on the tv for background noise because I don't like silence. However, I've learned that silent times are when God speaks to me most, and I'm most able to discern my true thoughts on things. I think this is why one of my favorite times of the day is right before I go to sleep at night. It's silent, and I'm very in tune to my thoughts with no distractions (well...except for the cat trying to smother me).

After all that rambling, I think my basic thoughts for myself and others are these:

1. Don't try to find your significance in the importance of being busy
2. There is nothing inherently wrong with being busy if it's for the right reasons
3. Busy people need to slow down occasionally.

And on that note, I guess I need to get back to my busy life!