“God gives us Sabbath as a gift; it’s an island of get-to in a sea of have-to. He also offers us Sabbath as a test; it’s an opportunity to trust God’s work more than our own.” Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy
I just came inside from playing Uno for an hour with my husband and daughter. That is not a normal evening around the Strange house…but it is certainly one of my favorite parts of summer…lazy evenings and long weekends! This past weekend, Clint planned a really fun family getaway to a resort on the other side of Atlanta. We had a wonderful time Friday afternoon and evening just spending time together as a family and having a lot of fun. When we woke up Saturday morning, it was pouring down rain and the forecast showed steady rain the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday…all of our remaining time at the resort. I should mention that the main piece of this resort is a waterpark, their lake, and an awesome pool…basically no indoor options at all. We were really looking forward to this time away, but realized that with an adventurous 5 1/2 year old and an energetic 19 month old, our best bet was to raincheck the rest of our trip and reschedule for another time. We headed home from our restful weekend and immediately began planning what we would “do” when we got home. We ended up spending the day running errands, working on house projects, and finally falling into bed around 10pm exhausted from a very productive Saturday. Our break somehow turned into work. Unfortunately that tends to happen more often than not. However, I will pull over for a minute to applaud the fact that Clint came up with an awesome surprise for our family and all of us prepared ourselves for a restful and fun break together. We will definitely reschedule soon!
As a high school principal, I am blessed to have a lighter schedule in the summer and to enjoy three straight weeks off from work. Our family fully embraces this time and we normally head out of town for the majority of the three weeks to hang out on the beach and to enjoy restful time with family and friends. This year was one of the best summers for rest as we spent an entire week at the beach. Normally we just stretch a long weekend and call that a family vacation. This year at the beach, we scheduled Saturday to Saturday. I realized that it took me until almost Wednesday…4 days into our vacation…before I finally started relaxing. I’m trying to convince Clint that we should go to the beach for the entire 3 weeks next year..just imagine how relaxed I’d be!
I’ve seen several friends that have read Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung and decided it was time to hear what he had to say for myself. I read this book in a matter of about an hour and a half…which was great because my attention span can still handle 90 minutes…that was a celebration in and of itself! I am grateful to see that DeYoung, a pastor, based his thoughts on Scripture and what God’s word has to say about creating healthy rhythms for day to day life. I highlighted several things while reading and have posted my notes below…
- We are here and there and everywhere. We are distracted. We are preoccupied. We can’t focus on the task in front of us. We don’t follow through. We don’t keep our commitments. We are so busy with a million pursuits that we don’t even notice the most important things slipping away.
- There are two realities of the modernized, urbanized, globalized world that most everyone in human history could not fathom: our complexity and our opportunity.
- When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk.
- The first danger is that busyness can ruin our joy.
- “Margin is the space between our load and our limits.” Richard Swenson, Margin
- When busyness goes after joy, it goes after everyone’s joy.
- The second danger is that busyness can rob our hearts.
- The third danger is that busyness can cover up the rot in our souls.
- The greatest danger with busyness is that there may be greater dangers you never have time to consider.
- Our understanding of busyness must start with the one sin that begets so many of our other sins: pride.
- I am not the Christ.
- There is good news.
- Care is not the same as do.
- We have different gifts and different callings.
- Remember the church.
- I can always pray right now.
- Jesus didn’t do it all.
- Jesus did not float above the fray, untouched by the pressures of normal human existence. Our Lord did not sit around listening to hard music all day while the angels brought him heavenly bananas. Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). And that includes the temptation to be sinfully busy.
- Truth #1: I must set priorities because I can’t do it all.
- “The supply of time is totally inelastic. No matter how high the demand, the supply will not go up. There is no price for it and no marginal utility curve for it. Moreover, time is totally perishable and cannot be stored. Yesterday’s time is gone forever and will never come back. Time is, therefore, always in exceedingly short supply.” Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive
- Truth #2: I must set priorities if I am to serve others most effectively.
- Stewarding my time is not about selfishly pursuing only the things I like to do. It’s about effectively serving others in the ways I’m best able to serve and in the ways I am most uniquely called to serve.
- Setting priorities is an expression of love for others and for God.
- Truth #3: I must allow others to set their own priorities.
- Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 2 Peter 2:19
- Cultivate a healthy suspicion toward technology and “progress.”
- Be more thoughtful and understanding in your connectedness with others.
- Deliberately use old technology.
- Make boundaries, and fight with all your might to protect them.
- Bring our Christian theology to bear on these dangers of the digital age.
- Because we have a God who chose us in eternity past and looks at a day as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day, we will not be infatuated with the latest fads and trends.
- We cannot have meaningful relationships with thousands of people. We cannot really know what is going on in the world. We cannot be truly here and there at the same time. The biggest deception of our digital age may be the lie that says we can be omni-competent, omni-informed, and omni-present. We cannot be any of these things. We must choose our absence, our inability, and our ignorance—and choose wisely. The sooner we embrace this finitude, the sooner we can be free.
- God gives us Sabbath as a gift; it’s an island of get-to in a sea of have-to. He also offers us Sabbath as a test; it’s an opportunity to trust God’s work more than our own.
- We can’t run incessantly and expect to run very well.
- We have to schedule time to be unscheduled.
- I’m not so important in God’s universe that I can’t afford to rest. But my God-given limitations are so real that I can’t afford not to.
- The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth and indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our own finitude, and trust in the providence of God.
- Effective love is rarely efficient. People take time. Relationships are messy. If we love others, how can we not be busy and burdened at least some of the time?
- To paraphrase Titus 3:3, we live as slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in chaos and envy, hassled by others and hassling one another. We are all very busy, but not with what matters most.
- “I am more and more convinced that what gives a ministry its motivations, perseverance, humility, joy, tenderness, passion, and grace is the devotional life of the one doing ministry. When I daily admit how needy I am, daily meditate on the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and daily feed on the restorative wisdom of his Word, I am propelled to share with others the grace that I am daily receiving at the hands of my Savior.” Paul Tripp, Dangerous Calling
- We won’t say not to more craziness until we can say yes to more Jesus. We will keep choosing dinner rolls over the bread of life. We will choose the fanfare of the world over the feet of Jesus. We will choose busyness over blessing.