Busy Busy

Early this morning I was awakened by my son. This is not unusual. However, being 3am in the morning, it wasn’t entirely welcome either. This awakening did lead to the discovery of a missed call from a childhood friend, just an hour before.

I attempted to return his call, but had to leave my own voicemail stating that he was loved, that I’m praying for him, and that can call anytime.

This made me realize that I’ve not really been a very good at reaching out to the people that matter in my life lately.

“It’s just the season of your life,” I could say, and not entirely inaccurately. But that isn’t an excuse. Technically it is an excuse, but not a good one.

“I’m just so busy,” would be another lame excuse.

Because, really, so is every one else.

In truth I think that busyness is a large part of the problem, our problem, as humans. As a society we used to have to work hard during the daylight hours to eek out survival, struggling mightily every day, but sleeping far better. Now that survival is, mostly, a foregone conclusion, we felt it necessary to fill the remaining space. It is rather like moving into a new larger home, and thinking how we could never fill up all the space… yet just a few years later the entire house is filled. We seem to fill whatever space, or time, that we have, to the brim.

Are we better off for our busyness? Of course not. We live our lives with so little margin, so little time for the unexpected, that we miss out on more than we gain. I often remember the times God has moved in my life in the unexpected, and then wonder how much I have missed by being too busy.

This brings me back to that missed call. I could have just left my return call until morning. That would have been the “sensible” thing. Yet my heart knew that a call at 2am is not one a person would normally make, nor one that can wait until morning. Despite the fact that I was only able to leave a voicemail, at least my friend now knows that I do care, that sleep is less important than a person.

This writing is meant to stoke my own fire, not too toot my own horn. I feel a growing desire to make people more important than my plans. To unravel the mysterious, wonder-filled life that is possible when there is margin in life. More than anything this writing is to bring myself back into the right perspective.

The human soul is the one thing that we carry into eternity.

Let us view our lives from that perspective, that life passes more quickly than we imagine, making the time we spend with other people all the more valuable. Let us speak of the power of God’s word to as many as would hear, and living it out, that one more soul may enter eternity knowing God’s love.

Leave time for the unexpected, cut out the busy.