The following excerpt has been taken with permission from Kevin DeYoung’s book Super Oculpad, Faithful Editor.
As disturbing and frustrating as modern life is, the greatest dangers are not the material or temporal disadvantages. A person can do a physical work twelve hours a day, six days a week, for the rest of their life and not suffer it. In fact, he (or she) may be healthier in doing so, but what if the effort is mental?As is the case with most jobs and for most of us, the negative effects on the body could be huge. the physical danger of being too busy. But remember that the most serious threats are spiritual dangers. When we’re busy like crazy, we put our souls in danger. The challenge isn’t just making some bad habits go away. to prevent our spiritual life from disappearing. The dangers are serious and growing. Few of us are as sure as we think.
- It is the most immediate and obvious spiritual threat.
- As Christians.
- Our lives were to be characterized by joy (Philippians 4.
- 4).
- With a taste of joy (Galatians 5.
- 22) and full of joy (John 15.
- 11).
- Attacks all this.
- One study indicates that travelers experience higher levels of stress than bombers or police pilots.
- That’s what we’re facing.
- When our lives are frantic and wild.
- We are more prone to anxiety.
- Resentment.
- Impatience and irritability.
Working on this book, I could see an improved spirit in me, not because of my writings, but because of the time I had to do the writing work. During these weeks without the pressures of travel, meetings and the constant preparation of sermons, I found myself more patient with my children, more attentive and sensitive to my wife, more willing to listen to God, it is obvious that we all have weeks and months in which everything can go wrong and that is wrong, in these times we will have to fight. It is difficult to have joy in the midst of many occupations, but few of us will fight right now for the joy of next week, in the face of the unnecessary habits of clumsy occupation that make most weeks unhappy.
Many years ago, I heard an interview with Richard Swenson, a Christian doctor, about the concept of “margin. “The idea itself is not exclusively Christian; but there’s something very unseemly about it. “The margin,” Swenson says, “is the space between our cargo and our limits. “Planning by margin means planning for the unexpected. This means that we understand what is possible for us finite creatures, and then we plan less than that!
In the last year, have I noticed that I hadn’t forecast any margin in my weeks? In fact, I have an inverted margin. I look forward to next week and in the face of any interruption or new opportunity or obstacle, I already have an idea of how to do everything, I see the meeting schedule, the sermons that I will have to prepare, the emails that I need. writing, the blogs I have to post, the projects I have to finish, the people I have to attend, and I’m figuring that hopefully, or a little better than I expected, I can get it all on the agenda. Of course, there are no ideal weeks and I find myself unable to absorb surprises, so I run, crawl, and take care of myself madly, I put my hands in the dough, that’s all I can do at that moment, because I did not expect better weeks ago.
Unbridled occupation is like sin: kill it or it will kill you. We all fall into a predictable mold. We began to feel overwhelmed by one or two major projects, then we were devastated by usury and lost hope of regaining peace and swore that we had to change things, then, two weeks later, life seems more bearable and we forget what we swear until the cycle repeats itself. We don’t realize that all the time we’ve been miserable, miserable, responding ruthlessly and being personally as friendly as a retracted cat. When the occupation goes after joy, it goes against the joy of all.
The sower flung the seed freely. Some seeds fell as they passed and the birds devoured everything; others fell into stony ground and germinated quickly, but dried up in the heat of the first scorching sun; some seeds fell among the thorns that smothered his fragile life. In this parable of Jesus, there is a clear progression (Mark 4:1-20), in some hearts the Word of God does nothing, Satan removes it as soon as he plants it, in other hearts at first the Word grows, but disappears As fast as it has grown, persecutions and trials put out of combat the Christian future, but in the third category of planting failure , the Word penetrates deeper, the plant grows, reaches almost the point of giving fruit. The land is good. Apparently, a new life is taking root, everything is on its way to a good harvest. Until the thorns appear.
John Calvin said that the human heart is “a thick forest of thorns. “10 Jesus gives two specific names. The first one who calls, taking care of this world? (Mark 4. 19). Do you know why Christian retreats, missionary travel, camps, and conferences are almost always good for our spiritual growth?Because to participate, we have to publish our agenda. You’re going out. Put aside your usual madness for a weekend and find a space to think, pray, and worship God.
For most of us, it is not heresy or apostasy that unbalances our faith; these are life’s concerns. You have to fix the car. The pifa water heater. Children have to go to the doctor. You still can’t file your tax return. Your bank account is unbalanced. It took you a while to write thank you notes. You promised your mother you’d go home and fix the faucet. You’re late to plan your wedding. The OAB contest or exam is coming up. You need to submit more resumes immediately. The deadline for your master’s thesis is running out. The tank is empty. We have to mow the lawn. The curtains of the house are not cumshot. The washing machine trembles and makes a terrifying noise. This is life for most of us and drowns out our spiritual life.
A second thorn is related to the first, Jesus says that the work of the Word is devoured by the desire for other things, things themselves are not the problem, the problem is all we do to get these things, take care of them and get more and more. Is it any wonder that the most stressed people on the planet live in the richest countries?Holiday homes, boats, vacation packages, investments, real estate, upgraded bikes, new car, new house, – Art computer, new video games, new makeup, new DVDs, new downloads, new?It all takes time. We hear endless sermons about the dangers of money, but the real danger comes after we’ve spent your money. Once you own a home, you need to do maintenance, keep it running, and be aware of the latest improvements. It doesn’t sink, maintenance can do it!
Jesus knows what he’s talking about. As much as we pray against the devil and pray for the persecuted church, in the thought of Jesus, the greatest threat to the gospel is mere exhaustion; being too busy kills more Christians than bullets; how many sermons lose their power due to excessive preparations for lunch or dinner and professional football matches?How many moments of pain are lost because we never stop long enough to learn from them?How many times has private and family worship been crushed by school projects or football matches?We have to keep going, look at the heart. The seed of God’s Word does not grow to bear fruit without being cut by rest, calm, and stillness.
The frantic rhythm of life can make us physically and spiritually sick, which probably won’t surprise you. What we can’t recognize is that our crazy schedules are often a sign that evil has already happened.
Since 2002, I have been meeting seminary friends every fall. Nine of us met every week when we dated Gordon-Conwell, and when we graduated, we pledged to meet once a year. We eat a lot, we laugh a lot and we look a lot. We also talked about our joys and struggles over the past twelve months. Over the years, we have observed topics that each of us knows. Perhaps one is struggling with discontent, another with discouragement, another with which direction to take, and another with relational pressures at work. We all have afflicting sins and predictable problems. My sin was to be too busy. When it comes to sharing, everyone already expects me to talk about everything I have to do and don’t know what to take out of my life.
While it may seem unhealthy for some adult men to continue struggling with the same problems year after year, the healthy sign is that we are starting to take more responsibility for these difficulties. We recognize that if the same problems affect the same men every year, perhaps the central problem is in all of us. What does this say about me that I am often and completely dominated by this issue?What do I need to learn about myself?What divine commandments should I ignore when I must obey what self-imposed commandments should I obey when I should ignore them?What happens in my soul to being busy like a madman my main feature all year round??
Could the presence of extreme occupation in our lives indicate deeper problems?Insidious tendency to please people above all, relentless ambition, feeling uncomfortable, meaninglessness. “Too much occupation serves as a kind of existential security, a wall against emptiness. “writes Tim Kreider in his viral article, “The Busy”?Trap ?, [The Busy Trap] for The New York Times. ” It’s obvious that your life can’t be silly, insignificant or insignificant if you’re busy, with a busy schedule, that you’re looking to take care of anything at any time of the day?The greatest danger of being as busy as a fool is that there can be dangers you’ve never had time to consider.
Does super busy, doesn’t that mean you’re a faithful or fruitful Christian, it just means you’re busy, like everyone else, and like everyone else, your joy, your heart, your soul are in danger. We need GodPalabra. de to free ourselves. We need biblical wisdom to correct ourselves. What we really need is for the great doctor to heal our overcrowded souls.
If only we could take the time for a date!
Am I super busy?! Do you feel that way, is his schedule full?Without giving advice on the administration of hectic time, DeYoung offers in this book biblical principles that help us understand why we are so busy so that we can eliminate the problem. I’m a promotional text. Click the Edit button to edit this text. .
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