Have you ever been so busy where you are stressed out and maybe even burned out?
This happened to me recently while I was trying my best to balance working 32+ hours a week, going to school 4 days a week, and doing a 15 hour partnership as part of school.
That sounds like a gut-wrenching, heart pounding headache that is engulfed in the word busy. That was me recently and I was letting the busyness of life overtake my happiness or better yet, I was allowing busyness to control my emotions.
Ultimately when we are busy we feel like we are accomplishing many things when in reality, the busier we get the more distracted we become.
Busyness will distract us from who Jesus has called us to be.
Busyness was distracting me from operating out of worship and instead I was operating out of worry. My focus was on how was I going to keep busy instead of how can I worship God.
Worry and busyness do not equal worship. In fact, the more we worry about things the less we worship God. The more we worship God, the less we worry.
Worship > Busyness
We always try to change the facts to line up more with how we feel by saying, “Being busy is good for me” or “Being busy keeps me focused” and even “Being busy keeps me out of trouble.”
Here is the truth about busyness —> Busyness does not equal worship. In fact the busier we are the less we worship God. The more we worship God we become less busy.
2 Ways To Replace Busyness With Worship
- Find Your Place
Where is your place at? Maybe by the lake or maybe going on a drive. For me this was crucial that I found my place because I needed that one place I could run to with my bible and chill for sometime.
I love anything that involves water so for me, my place was by the lake. I would take my bible and some headphones and go sit by the lake and watch the water.
The ways God spoke to me during those times was incredible and I will never forget it! In order to do this I sacrificed showing up to something on my schedule an hour later each week but it was well worth the investment.
Just like I found my place, finding your place will help you connect with God and decrease the busyness in your life.
2. Create Margin
Where is your weekly schedule are you choosing to insert worship? I have found that God wants to work in our life, but most of the time we don’t have the margin to let him.
Maybe there are one or two things in your schedule that could afford to catch a goodbye.
“Let go of your concerns! Then you will know that I am God. I rule the nations and the earth.” (Psalm 46:10 GW)
God says once we let go of our concerns (our busyness) then we will know he is God and we will see it. In other words, when we create a margin in our schedule we will see God at work more.
Reflect:
- Where is your place?
- What can you sacrifice in your schedule?
- What activity do you enjoy that brings you close to God?
Bryant Westbrook 