Finding the Cure for Busyness
Busyness can feel like an epidemic—stealing joy, draining strength, and disrupting intimacy with Christ. This article points to a better way: putting first what Jesus said is necessary and learning to serve from a place of nearness to him.
- Busyness is not new, but it can quietly displace devotion and joy.
- Jesus calls us to choose “one thing” as essential: his presence and his voice.
- Following Jesus means pleasing the Father first, not trying to meet every need in our own strength.
By Dave Butts
Busyness Runs Rampant
Today an epidemic runs rampant throughout the land. No part of the country is immune from this plague. Little children suffer from it, as well as the elderly and those in-between. There is no quick cure, and many people never recover from it. It breaks up homes, incapacitates people, and contributes to many other diseases. It certainly devastated much of the 20th century and looks to be even more deadly in the 21st.
It is busyness!
We live in a busy society. Never have there been so many choices concerning what to do or so many pressures stemming from our schedules. Not even the youngest are immune. One of the recent concerns of media in America has been the grueling schedules of children whose parents have enrolled them in so many special activities and events that they seem to have lost their childhood.
Nancy Leigh DeMoss shared about a women’s weekend conference she taught. She asked the attendees, “Where does God find you as we start this weekend?” Here are some of the responses:
- “I feel I’m out of control sometimes with so many pressures.”
- “I face too much stress and responsibility.”
- “I often get overly busy and find my day gone without having done the things I most wanted to do.”
- “I’ve left a whirlwind at home, and need a renewed spirit to face all that these coming weeks will hold.”
- “I want to slow down. I feel as if I’m on a speeding treadmill, and if I try to jump off I will stumble and fall.”
- “My busyness has robbed me of my joy.”
Though our generation seems to have perfected busyness, it is not a problem unique to our day. American church reformer Alexander Campbell wrote 150 years ago:
This present age is not an age given to devotion. Men have not the time to meditate, to pray, to examine themselves. They have too many newspapers to read, too many political questions to discuss, too much business to transact.
Christian author Philip Patterson put it this way:
Historian Will Durant once observed that “no man who is in a hurry is quite civilized.” You need only to observe human behavior on a crowded freeway or a rush hour subway station to agree to that. But I’m more concerned with the possibility that no one who is constantly in a hurry can be fully Christian, either. How do I balance the demands of a Christian life with the command to “Be still”?
That’s my concern. In an age known for busyness, how can Christians live counter-culturally? In the midst of a hectic lifestyle, can we learn to wait on the Lord? Is it possible that even while serving God, we can miss the joy of intimacy with Christ?
Learning From Martha
Have we all become Martha, busy in the kitchen fixing a meal for Jesus, while missing out on the joy of sitting at his feet? (Luke 10:38-42).
Most of us identify more with Martha than with Mary. We’d rather be up doing something for Jesus than simply resting before him. That mind-set directs us into a busy lifestyle that often leads to exhaustion and burnout.
Please understand that serving Jesus is good, a worthy thing to devote one’s life to. But serving must be balanced with sitting at Jesus’ feet, spending time with our Lord in loving intimacy, and waiting upon him.
When Martha complained about her sister’s lack of help, Jesus told her (and us) that only one thing is needed. Really? In our busy world only one essential thing must be done? That’s almost hard to take. Yet, how freeing to realize our Lord and Master requires only that we enjoy his presence and hear his voice.
The solution to busyness is not laziness. It is not a shirking of responsibilities or a giving of oneself to recreation. It is to put first what Jesus said is first. It is a realignment of priorities, placing that one necessary thing in the very center of our lives, allowing everything else to flow from it.
As we learn to sit at Jesus’ feet, we find the rest of our day more orderly and less hectic. Rather than trying to accomplish everything we think we need to do during a day, we listen to his still small voice directing us to do that which comes from him.
Learning From Jesus
Jesus has modeled this lifestyle for us. He said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” He set about doing the will of his Father with dogged determination, but never in a hectic, busy, out-of-control way. You never see Jesus in a hurry. And at the end of a remarkable life, with just over three years of public ministry, he was able to say to his Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4).
Jesus gave us the key to accomplishing all the Father had given him to do in John 14:10: “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” Even the Son of God needed to depend upon the Father as he decided how to spend his time. As Jesus walked in close intimacy with his Father, he was able to focus first on him without becoming distracted by the tremendous needs around him.
We forget that, and in our attempt to serve, we throw ourselves into every situation without first checking to see if it is something God has for us. Remember the time Jesus healed the lame man at the pool of Bethesda? There were many sick people there, but Jesus, under the leadership of the Spirit, healed just the one man. His was not a ministry focused on meeting needs, but on pleasing his Father.
As we follow Jesus, we too are called to please the Father in all we do. It pleases him when we draw near. In his presence there is peace and rest, not tension and busyness.
So Jesus teaches us that we must put first things first. Sit at his feet first of all . . . and then we will be ready to serve with even greater effectiveness. There is a cure for busyness! It is found as we develop a life of intimacy with Christ.
Dave Butts, president of Harvest Prayer Ministries, is a frequent conference speaker. He serves as the chairman of the National Prayer Committee, president of Gospel Revivals Inc. (Herald of His Coming), vice chairman of the Denominational Prayer Leaders Network, chairman of the board of Pioneer Bible Translators, and on the Mission America Coalition.
Butts earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lincoln (Illinois) Christian College and bachelor and master’s degrees from Indiana State University. For 11 years he served as senior minister of Kansas (Illinois) Christian Church. It was at Kansas that God began developing in him a passion for prayer and missions.
Along with his wife Kim, Butts felt the call to full-time prayer ministry and in 1993 founded Harvest Prayer Ministries.
His published works include The Devil Goes to Church: Prayer as Spiritual Warfare (Covenant Publishing, 2003), and A Call to Prayer (Standard Publishing, 1993).
