I Don’t Do Busy: Day 26 of 31 Days

Click on the image above for Day 1

I have been dreading this upcoming week ever since I saw the traffic-jam starting to form on the calendar over a month ago.  It makes me tense, seeing all those events stacked up in the same boxes in one little week in October because I don’t do busy. 

At least, I don’t do it very well.

Like Jewel in our story, I struggle to keep my hands full of God’s riches when my feet are running in a thousand different directions.  Before I even realize what is happening, I have slipped back into self-reliance and I am settling for bare survival.

Perhaps that’s why I chose to fill 31 days with a story about how God has given me everything I need for life and godliness…and how I totally ignore those riches sometimes because I’d rather come out on the other side, half-alive and over-stressed, and shout, “I did it MY way!”

That usually doesn’t work out too well for me.

Sure, I can accomplish the tasks and please all the people, but it’s like putting back on the dirty clothes I came to the kingdom in.  I don’t look very good to my prince and I certainly don’t act like a radiant bride.

Consequently, I have made a habit of choosing my activities carefully and guarding my time so I’m not in those situations to begin with.  Avoidance has always been my favorite spiritual gift.

Usually, it works.

But not this time.  This time, the scheduling was unavoidable.  Certain important things just happened to coincide with other important things.  No one is to blame (except maybe my husband, who didn’t absolutely forbid me to do this 31 Days challenge when I first mentioned it), and nothing can be cut out.  I look at my calendar and the impending challenge to my spiritual well-being and I think, “This is a great opportunity to practice what I’ve been theoretically preaching.”

Because sometimes, life is busy and chaotic and overwhelming and nothing can be done about it.  It’s just the season.  God doesn’t give us a free pass then and say, “It’s okay to be entirely vile and self-indulgent this week.  I can see you’re over-committed.  It would probably be a huge inconvenience to stop by so I can nourish and strengthen you.”

I treat my prince like that sometimes, like coming to His treasure room is just another box on my to-do list.  When the days are particularly full, it’s easy to skip it all together because He’s less noisy about it than my other obligations are.  I mean, I can neglect to feed myself from His Word, but I can’t very well fail to feed the children because they whine.

The temptation is to give in to my schedule and let my circumstances dictate whether I am full of Christ’s riches or not.  I behave as if God has given me everything I need for life on the quiet days, for the days when I have time for Him.

It’s just too bad the Scriptures don’t actually say that.

God has given us everything we need for every day.  That means circumstances can be perfect for filling up on Christ’s riches, or they can be an absolute hindrance to it.  It doesn’t matter.

Trusting His provision has nothing to do with circumstances because it is not an obligation.  It is not a nice-thing-to-do-if-you-want-to-go-the-extra-mile-for-Jesus.  He does not hand out smiley stickers if you pray or read your Bible, as if doing those things earns you extra points with the Big Guy.

It might work that way if God’s riches were Law.

But God’s riches are a grace.

They are given to you, not so you are be obligated to them, but so you can be refreshed by them.  They are not the rule book for the game; they are the fuel.  If you avoid them, it is to your own detriment, not His.

That’s why, when life is most overwhelming, Christ’s riches are most necessary.  On the busy days, we should think to ourselves, “Give me a full tank.  I need all the help I can get.”

Instead, we—I—allow our circumstances to shift our priority.  Suddenly, it becomes much more important to make 10 dozen perfect cupcakes for the church bake sale than it does to perfect the beauty of the bride of Christ.  We might even feel a little guilty about missing an opportunity to spend time with Him, as if it is something we do for Him rather than a blessing He gives to us.

It is a grace.  All of Christ’s riches are a grace.  They are to be used liberally whenever we need anything for our physical or spiritual life.  In other words, they are to be used for every situation in every part of every day, whether the calendar is full or free.

Always.

I am going to be reminding myself of that every day this week because I don’t do busy very well, and I have a very busy week ahead.  Give me a full tank.  I need all the help I can get.

*Day 27 is coming right up!  I hope you’ll join us.