I was writing an email to a freind in a local church ministry situation who is busy, my response struck me as being bloggable, so minus names, here are my thoughts on “BUSY“.
On another note, God is slow. History shows that he is slow. It would seem that we desire so much to be the “God Chasers” when in fact my belief is that he is behind us wanting to chase us, rather than in front desiring us to chase him.
Our fast paced western consumeristic society says “fast = effective” “busy = good” and I think this is wrong.
God is slow, he is behind us. To really keep in step with his Spirit, to hear his voice directing our work/worship means to slow down, walk with him and people. If your ministry is causing you to go faster than God or your own precious relationships, you need to ask yourself, “is being outside of the “steps of the Spirit” merely and act of placing myself in God’s shoes, thinking that the ministry belongs to me or my church?” – then we begin serving a greater god that the one we gave our life over to.
If this is so, I guess the bible calls this idolatry…Just a note to cheer you up!! I worship the god of my mirror daily and need to repent!
I know this seems like a hard ‘doof’, but I feel so strong about it at the present (says me having worked till midnight last night!!! – So I’m not perfect…don’t tell anyone!)
We hold so many things as “have to’s”. Things that others place on us as “you need to’s”. We forget what’s important, really important. I was reflecting today on the passage about the Kingdom coming with violence and force etc. We interpret that from our cultural context as meaning, “Loud, fast, furious and busy”. Is that not merely matching the world? There is nothing startling or ‘violent’ about being busy and consumer driven in this world we live in, to be so would mean we just fit in and look the the rest of the culture rather than counter-cultural.
My belief is that to be violently, actively persuing a counter cultural stance in this world we live in we actually need to slow down, smell the roses and give ourselves over to alowing God to catch up to us. This is violent and offensive to much of the world. We may not win them over to our massive programmes and fancy auditoriums and (no offense intended) – wonderful new worship songs, (which I love by the way!), we may just end up catching their attention by our pace, slowing them down and building relationships with people and strengthening relationships with the ones we say we love.
No Guarantees 
that is so true. everyone is always too busy, but if we’re not busy doing something we seem lazy. i feel guilty if my day isn’t packed.
i think we’re scared to slow down, because if we get a moment to think we may realise that what we are busy doing is really a waste of time.
made a decision to slow down yesterday and look for god’s sparkle in every child i met. had the most beautiful day. was still at work at 7.30 because i’d spent the day chatting with kids and not marking their maths tests. for me there’s no guilt attached in working late, but i wonder how i’ll go when/if i have kiddies? how do you parents do it?? – charlie