It’s funny. We make decisions all the time with this passing thought: “I’m too busy.” It is sometimes said out loud, but often it is the subconscious guide to our lives.
You will be getting ready for work and your child will call out, “Mommy, I want to show you something.”
“Not now, Honey, I’m too busy.”
Your wife will call you during the day on your cell phone but you never bother to pick it up because you’re “too busy.”
An old friend is across the restaurant where you’re eating lunch, but you’re hoping inside he doesn’t notice you because you are really “too busy” to take time to catch up.
I find this intriguing. Those things we are too busy to do clearly are low on our priority list, no matter what we otherwise might say. The things we choose to occupy our time with are the things we choose to prioritize.
I think we all too often prioritize by what we are doing whether than by who we are becoming. In other words, we focus on getting tasks done rather than improving our character. Now, don’t get me wrong, I agree that getting tasks done is a good thing, but what tasks are we checking off our lists? Honestly assess that. Is it really all that important that you were able to make a to do list, check off 75% of the things on it, and pick up doughnuts for your office?
What if, by doing those things, you still weren’t a better husband or wife, a better mommy or daddy, more hospitable, more honest, more loving, or more like Jesus generally?
When you ran out the door to be able to pick up those doughnuts rather than take a moment to see the paper box your daughter made to hold her precious things and left her wondering why you never have time for her, have you truly accomplished what you want to make top priority?
When your wife knows she needn’t bother trying to call you during the day regardless of how much she needs to because you are always too busy to pick up the phone, have you really accomplished being the husband you were called to be, loving her like Christ loves the Church?
When you don’t have time to greet your friend and see how they are doing, are you really being a compassionate friend who is ready to live a life of love? Ephesians 5:1.
I don’t write these things because I have it all together. I wouldn’t know how to even write this without having lived on the wrong side of it.
So I challenged myself to do this. And perhaps you could, too. Let’s rest for a moment from all our busyness and business and ask, how do my daily decisions demonstrate my true priorities? And, how do those line up with my call to be like Jesus? Am I truly hospitable? Am I truly loving? Am I truly a friend to the friendless? Am I burning with passion to share the story of God in my life? Am I known as a husband and a daddy, a wife and a mother? Am I someone people seek out because they know I will have time for them, meeting them where they are just like Jesus met me where I was and am?
Many followers of Jesus say they want to be a leader. The bible tells us what makes a good leader. Perhaps you can ask yourself whether these are at the top of your priority list:
[A godly leader] must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 1 Timothy 3:2-4.
And, of course, Jesus tells us that a good leader is the one who serves others.
Do you have time for these things or are you “too busy”?