QUICK THOUGHT The Idol of Busyness

Another experiment, this time talking about the idol of busyness.

Transcript

Overcoming the Idol of Busyness

Speaker 1 0:08

Welcome to Balancing the Christian Life . Quick Thoughts . I'm Dr Kenny Embry . Join me as we figure out what it means to live as Christians .

Speaker 1 0:16

I just picked up my smartphone to see what's going on In my notifications . I've got a few messages . Specifically , I've got 49 . My washing machine said it was out of water . I fixed that several hours ago , so that's an old notification . Apparently , it's someone's birthday .

Speaker 1 0:34

I've saved $2 through one of my gas apps . Someone I barely know posted something on LinkedIn . The weather forecast is here on LinkedIn . The weather forecast is here . Costco wants me to spend more money . Last night the Reds beat the Pirates , and on and on and on . Most of this isn't worth much . Yes , at some point I need to go through the phone notifications and tell it what I care about and what I don't , but that's probably not going to be today .

Speaker 1 1:07

Picking up my phone , I feel busy . There's a lot of activity going on around me and I'm not sure it's helpful . There's something comforting about having a long to-do list . I would never admit this , but it makes me feel important . It also gives me something to complain about .

Speaker 1 1:21

I've met several people who always seem to have a crisis going on in their lives . They are constantly frantic , frazzled and have a short fuse . I often call this crowd people addicted to struggle If they don't have something to worry about . Give them a few minutes and they'll find something . There's a payoff for being constantly busy and distracted something . There's a payoff for being constantly busy and distracted .

Speaker 1 1:49

I call this the idol of busyness . I readily admit that most of us are busy because we are trying to keep all the spinning plates from falling . I've had two or three years now of plate spinning myself . But this kind of idolatry is dangerous because it allows you to frame yourself as a victim of your own story . Is dangerous because it allows you to frame yourself as a victim of your own story . To be fair , many of us are put in situations with few great alternatives , but embracing victimhood is almost always a losing strategy because it puts your decision-making ability in someone else's hands . It renders you powerless , which is never a good place to be . If only the world would change , you'd have all your problems fixed . Well , let's assume for a moment the world isn't changing . Let's assume you have decisions you can make to make things better , if not perfect , and let's assume for a moment maybe God has a vested interest in helping you rather than hurting you . So how can we be more productive with the idol of busyness ? First , cultivate gratitude .

Speaker 1 3:02

I've heard a chorus of criticism about smartphones and social media . More recently , I've heard a lot of hang-wringing about artificial intelligence . If we could only get back to Mayberry , where all the gossip happened at Floyd's Barbershop and Barney was only allowed one bullet in his chest pocket , wouldn't that be better ? Well , unfortunately that's fiction , and it was fiction in the 1960s as well . But more importantly , think about the things that genuinely make life better . You have a device in your pocket that connects you with almost everyone on earth , gives you access to almost all information you could ever want , and even tells you when you missed your turn and reroutes you in seconds .

Speaker 1 3:52

But let's put your phone away for a moment and marvel at just your bathroom , where you have something that takes care of your sewage , gives you hot water on demand and allows you to smell clean all day long . Then think for a moment about how all of that would be different 100 years ago , when your sewage was your problem , where your hot water was a luxury , where you had soap , because you made soap or clean water depended on you . I'm not going to call these things blessings , but I will say I'm grateful we figured these things out and I didn't have to depend on my ingenuity to make myself sanitary . All of these things come at prices . Smartphones , indoor plumbing and even the poisonous , highly processed foods we sometimes eat are all modern miracles of convenience and comfort . By the way , all of them have downsides and none of them should be used without some attention to what's good and what's bad . But please don't believe for a moment that someone is holding a gun to your head to eat Lucky Charms . You are the person who chooses to open the Facebook app or turn on the hot water . You don't have to and you can always choose not to , but the generation before you never had the option . Communication was harder , Finding information was harder , Living was harder . You don't have to , and that's something that should make you grateful . Second , if you want to overcome the idol of busyness , then ask God to help you concentrate .

Speaker 1 5:50

There are two verses I think about a lot . One is in the 46th Psalm . Yes , I'm taking it out of context a little , but I would contend it still has the same message Be still and know that I am God . I will be exalted among the nations , I will be exalted in the earth . To paraphrase this verse , I think it says no matter how much you do , no matter how important you think you are , there's nothing you can do more important than God . So settle down . You aren't that important and that's a very good thing .

Embracing Priorities and Letting Go

Speaker 1 6:32

The other verse is in the first chapter of Mark . It says Very early in the morning , while it was still dark , Jesus got up , left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed . Jesus found a place to concentrate on what's truly important and what isn't . I don't do that and that's my mistake , which leads me to this last recommendation Learn to cut stuff out and stop worrying about what other people think . There's a true difference between being busy and making things better . If you give yourself some time to think , you can figure that out .

Speaker 1 7:24

When you're young , you worry about the fear of missing out , or FOMO . As you get older , you see the blessing of missing out . Let's take this to God , the blessing of missing out . Let's take this to God . Lord , help us to lose ourselves and find you . Help us to see ourselves as truly insignificant , so we can better see how important you are . You love us . You have promised to take care of us . Help us to trust that , In the name of our King , Amen . Okay , so now go out and be good and do good .