Helpful & Unhelpful Busyness
Busyness can be either constructive, when it is God-directed (Mk 6:31), or destructive, when it is not directed by God’s Spirit. Concerning destructive busyness, when we are busy and experience high stress, we can become restless and have disturbed sleep (Eccl 5:3, NLT with LB). In such moments, it can be easier to get distracted and forget about the Lord. Yet, this is when we most need to turn to Him. Luke 12:30-31 reminds us that busyness is often connected to anxiety. We busily seek what we need and worry about not getting it rather than trusting God to provide for us. Hence, busyness can diminish the righteousness, peace, and joy that we are to experience as being part of His kingdom. Especially when our situation is of pivotal importance and we bear a great load of responsibility, we most need to unload all our burden onto Him (1 Pet 5:7, NJB) or we may be too busy and distracted to hear what He wants us to do. We should look to the spiritual needs of those with us and help them as well. This is simply being kind and considerate of them.
Here are two instances of constructive busyness: First, George Washington would ride throughout the army and exhort everyone to fear God and live in a Christian way (Beliles and McDowell, America’s Providential History, p 156). Second, Stonewall Jackson thought there should be an organized church in the Confederate army and set about to make that happen by having a Corps of Chaplains in the army.
To be sure, there are times when the Lord will direct us to be busy before balancing it with times of rest (Mk 6:31-32). For instance, as we have seen, we should look to the spiritual needs of those with us and help them as the Lord directs us. This is simply being kind, considerate, and loving. Remember, both busy Martha and resting Mary have their time and place (Lk 10:38-42).
The walls of our life need to be healed.