With my son’s prolonged illness, our family has been on a journey over most of this current year that has, without our overt permission, slowed us…way down. With this forced amendment to our normal schedule and commitments, I am realizing how much our culture-starting with me-views a busy life as a status symbol of importance and/or the inevitable cost of living in a hectic, complicated world. May I be blunt with you? So much of the unhealth that I am prone to and observe in the lives of those I lead through my pastoral and counseling ministries comes back to time, focus, and energy mismanagement. It is about time that we regain personal responsibility with how we manage our finite time and regular commitments. As Ross Harkness puts it, “Your calendar exposes you. You don’t optimize for what you say you want. You optimize for where your time actually goes. If your days are filled with low-value tasks, distractions, and busy work, your results will reflect that.”

A couple of caveats beforehand:

  1. There are seasons of life, like the Snode family is currently in, where it is simply not possible to be a part of certain normal obligations that have nothing to do with willful mismanagement. (We have to be honest enough to not take this “out” where we pretend it is a “need”…as God is not only our witness but Master.)
  2. The goal of this post is not to “pile on” where you are already overwhelmed; it is to convince you that there is a more sustainable and intentional way to live.
  3. The spirit of this post is not to passive aggressively come at those in my life who “are being delinquent” towards me or in the areas I lead; it is to argue for a healthy, balanced pace of life, family, work, ministry that will hear “well done” from the only lips (God’s, not mine) that ultimately matter.

Here’s a list of excuse-busting indicators that you are too busy in the life that God has graciously given to you and for which He will breathtakingly hold you responsible:

  1. You are too busy if you don’t time to have a daily relationship with this same God in not only reading but also studying His Word.
  2. You are too busy if you don’t have time to regularly date, connect, and dream with your spouse.
  3. You are too busy if you don’t have time to show up for meaningful moments (funerals, weddings, baby showers, reunions, etc.) with your extended family.
  4. You are too busy if you don’t have time to know the names of, small talk with, and be there for your neighbors.
  5. You are too busy if you don’t have time to maintain the right attitude and tone towards any and all around you…not just in the light, breezy moments but in the irritating, overwhelming moments.
  6. You are too busy if you don’t have time to have a proper Sabbath once per week where you shut off technology, work, and other distractions to renew your mind, body, and soul.
  7. You are too busy if you don’t have time to obey the Spirit’s prompting to help with sudden, urgent needs of even the complete stranger.
  8. You are too busy if you don’t have time to maintain a healthy diet and exercise regiment with your body….whatever that appropriately looks like at your stage of life.
  9. You are too busy if you don’t have time to avoid jumping to the conclusions of a critical spirit where you need to slow down to listen and understand with empathy.
  10. You are too busy if you don’t have time to participate in the missional/evangelistic efforts of your local church that are, by the way, for every believer.
  11. You are too busy if you don’t have time to include margin in your schedule that slows down the pace at which you drive, talk, and even process emergencies.
  12. You are too busy if you don’t have time to give your kids more than the leftovers of your energy and attention.
  13. You are too busy if you don’t have time to be fully engaged and productive vocationally for your employer/customer.
  14. You are too busy if you don’t have time to plan, anticipate, and be fully present on an annual family vacation/staycation.
  15. You are too busy if you don’t have time to practice hospitality towards those who simply need a place to belong…one big reason why we must create more space.
  16. You are too busy if you don’t have time to go “all in” where you are doing “a la carte” on the worship, small groups, and ministries emphasized in the local church with whom you claim God has led you to join in covenant community.
  17. You are too busy if you don’t have time to regularly set, maintain, and reevaluate healthy boundaries.
  18. You are too busy if you don’t have time to pray for needs/burdens of others beyond yourself.
  19. You are too busy if you don’t have time to set goals of personal development and practice evaluation of your systems in accomplishing them.
  20. You are too busy if you don’t have time to mindfully get a full night’s sleep on the regular.
  21. You are too busy if you don’t have time to build and maintain meaningful friendships with other adults.
  22. You are too busy if you don’t have time to do deep work when you are at optimal strength/clarity and, instead, are settling for shallow thinking and underdeveloped quality.
  23. You are too busy if you don’t have time to go through each item on this list slowly and humbly with the soul-searching prayer, “God is this me?”

If you would ask me what is the number one hindrance to the will and work of God on planet earth right now, my answer may surprise you. From my vantage point, it is not the “haters out there,” but His people who are over leveraged with their red-eyed calendars, finances, and passions…with very little left for God, the home, and the local church. As one writer put it, “Just because it is good doesn’t mean it is God. Saying ‘yes’ to everything is how leaders lose their edge.”

I would guess, if you are like me, that at this point in the reading you are starting to feel a bit guilty, dysfunctional, and overwhelmed. Before you let the above list cause you to make another “to do” list, may I encourage to do the opposite. Start a “stop doing” list advocated for by Jim Collins in his classic book Good to Great. When you are truly too busy, the refreshing momentum is usually discovered by doing less, not more as the below graphic of emptying the “semi gray dots” on line one (Umpteen items that may be good but not essential) to consistently, passionately fill in the white dots on line two (23 items listed above).

Credit: @neurovisuals on Instagram

Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash