The service is about to begin and you are finishing up some small talk with friends, or more acquaintances. You go from person to person saying hello, and “How are you?” Most of the time we ask this out of courtesy and don’t actually expect a genuine heartfelt answer. After all, how can you share your deep concerns in the 30 seconds you are talking with someone? In the end, though, how many times in those short, small talk conversations does the question “How are you?” receive the answer of “Busy!”
More often than not these days we are constantly busy. There are busy seasons, and then busier seasons. When do we have seasons of rest? Too many times in today’s culture we value being busy. That is seen as productive, whereas if you are not busy, you are simply wasting time. When you are not busy, those who are “busy” often look down on you.
The past few weeks, and especially this week have been very busy for me. Many of my roles with NLCF have cranked up, involving our homeless ministry, the Life After College program I lead, as well as our spring break trip to Honduras less than 2 weeks away. A lot of things happening in a very short period of time. Fortunately today, things slowed down significantly. But instead of feeling relieved, I felt worried that I was forgetting something. All week I had been trying to keep the plates spinning, and now that everything was rolling fine, I was paranoid I was forgetting something. I felt like I needed to stay busy. Why was it so hard for me to slow down? Why is it hard for us to rest?
Part of the reason may how we rest. Most of the time, my “rest” simply involves sitting in front of the TV. Is this wrong? Not all the time. Maybe sitting for hours on end could be a poor idea, but sometimes we need to simply let our brains stop thinking for a little while. But it isn’t always the best rest we could be doing. How many times do we give excuses for not spending more time with God, not getting outside, etc.? We often have the time to rest well, but choose other ways to “rest” instead.
Our lives will continue have seasons of being busy, and those where we are less busy. I need to challenge my own view of rest, so I challenge you to join me in that as well.
David McCann 