Busy, Busy, Busy!

It's not uncommon for someone to answer the question, "How are you doing?" with "I'm busy!" And if prodded, the same person rattles off a list of activities, demands, deadlines, chores, tasks, and projects that require his or her full attention.

"I hardly have time to breathe," often follows their recital of the 'things-I-have-to-do' list.

Sometimes they exaggerate their schedule or, at least, its importance in the grand scheme of things. Sometimes not. Either way, the question remains unanswered.

The question is "How are you doing?" not "What are you doing?" Their response tells me something about how they see life.

To the busy-person, life equals activity. And the cliche becomes a rule: "time is money." They "buy" and "save" time, so that they can "spend" it as they wish. They try to make up for "lost" time by "stealing" more. They even talk of "investing" their time.

Time-driven people use other people as a means to extend their own time. "Will you watch my child while I .....?" "Can you be at my kid's school activity while I ...." "I have to leave early because ...." "I can only stay a few minutes, I have to ..." "Sorry I haven't talked to you in weeks, but you have no idea how busy I am."

Busy Bees ignore the foundation of human personhood and spiritual life that both are fundamentally relational. We humans are made to live in communion with Papa-God and our fellow travelers. But busy-people who regard only the task and the clock end up building distorted relationships--with God and others.

For them, life is activity. They push as much into the time they have as possible. They do more, consume more, work more, attend more meetings, tackle more deadlines. Do they have the time to find out what's going on with someone else or to let someone in on what's going on inside of them? No. They're too busy!

Busy-people seldom spend unhurried time ('Sabbath-rest-time') with God or family members. They're the "elder son" in the story of the prodigal. They do the right thing, manage the family business, work hard, and fill every empty moment with something urgent. Their personal calenders are crammed with "must-do," "have-to-do," or "ought-to-do" activities. It makes them feel needed and important.

Yet busy-people ignore what is most important--Papa-God and family members. All Papa wants is for them to stop by on our way to work and have a cup of coffee with him. Check in from time to time. Talk. Laugh. Share the stuff of life. But substantive relationships seldom make an appearance on the busy-person's calendar.

Why?

Busy-people are preoccupied with their own importance and mastered by their own schedules. They exchange the lasting for the temporal, the depths for the shallows, real gold for fools gold. achievements for relationships, and saddest of all, rushed moments for sacred moments.

If a quality life equals a full calendar, busy-people graduate magna-cum-laude. If a quality life equals substantive relationships with God and others, busy-people fail miserably.

Which is it?