Too Busy!

I read this in my devotional book this week:

When the Master invited the Governor to practice meditation and the Governor said he was too busy, this is the reply he got: “You put me in mind of a man walking blindfolded into the jungle–and being too busy to take the blindfold off.”

When the Governor pleaded lack of time, the Master said, “It is a mistake to think that meditation cannot be practiced for lack of time. The real reason is agitation of the mind.” –From Taking Flight by Anthony deMello

And then the next night, I read this:

How often people today cry out in exasperation or despair, “I just don’t have enough time!” There is so much to do: earn a living, fulfill a vocation, nurture relationships, care for dependents, exercise, clean the house. Moreover, we hope to maintain sanity while doing all this, and to keep growing as faithful and loving people at the same time. We are finite, and the demands seem too great, the time too short.

Puritan Sabbath keepers agreed that “good Sabbaths make good Christians.” They meant that regular, disciplined attention to the spiritual life was the foundation of faithfulness. Another dimension of the saying opens up if we imagine a worshiping community helping one another step off the treadmill of work-and-spend and into the circle of glad gratitude for the gifts of God. Taken this way, good Sabbaths make good Christians by regularly reminding us of God’s creative, liberating, and redeeming presence, not only in words but also through a practice we do together in response to that presence. –From “Keeping Sabbath by Dorothy C. Bass in Practicing Our Faith

How many times in the last week have you said, “I’m just too busy to get to that,” or “I don’t have time to do this?” Can you even count the number? And how often do you say, “I just don’t have time to pray,” or “I can’t figure out how to work devotional time into my schedule?”

We live in a culture of busy-ness. Life seems to be out of our control because there is something going on all the time and we can’t (don’t want to) miss anything. And what suffers when life gets crazy busy? Our quiet time. Our centering time. Our sabbath time. We just keep filling the schedule until there is no time left to refresh and renew ourselves with the help of Christ.

There was a time when I said  I just couldn’t find any time that worked to spend time reading my Bible and praying. Then one night, I climbed in bed and picked up the novel I was reading and it hit me. I was choosing to lay in my bed and read a novel. I had time to do that. Or rather, I was making time to do that. Why wasn’t I making time to spend with the Lord? So I started. I put my Bible on top of my book and before I could read my book, I made myself read my Bible. And then I added a devotional book. And then I added writing in a journal. And now, I can’t imagine going to sleep without that time. I do it faithfully every day. Even when it is late.

You hear people say all the time about how important this time is, and I agree, but until I read Monday’s devotional, I never quite had the right words for why it is important. Now I do.

When the Master invited the Governor to practice meditation and the Governor said he was too busy, this is the reply he got: “You put me in mind of a man walking blindfolded into the jungle–and being too busy to take the blindfold off.”

Every day, we are walking into a jungle, crazy schedules, family dynamics, work issues, and so much more, and when we are too busy to stop and re-center our lives around Christ and who we are in Him, we are walking into it blindfolded. We can’t see our purpose. We can’t see how God is at work. We can’t see how what we are a part of fits into a bigger picture than just getting through the day. And we are purposely not taking that blindfold off because it would take too much time.

I don’t want to spend my time in the jungle blindfolded. How about you?