On the Business of Busy-ness
Last week, on Monday, January 22, the daily online devotional of The Company of Pastors and The Order of Elders in the Presbyterian Church (USA) had the following quotation from Henri Nouwen’s Making All Things New for meditation and theological reflection. In this piece, he writes:
One of the most obvious characteristics of our daily lives is that we are busy. We experience our days as filled with things to do, people to meet, projects to finish, letters to write, calls to make, and appointments to keep…. The strange thing, however, is that it is very hard not to be busy. Being busy has become a status symbol.1
If being busy has indeed become a status symbol, I wonder why at times, when I keep finding myself saying it. The casual conversation at the supermarket or when you meet someone at Wal-Mart can go something like this: “Hi! How are you?� “Oh, fine. Really busy these days.� “Busy enough keeping busy, huh?!?� And so goes the next sort of repartee one might encounter on any given day at the store. Busy, busy, busy. Even on my personal web site at rexespiritu.net
I have a brief bit on this:ÂÂ
Come on by and say, “Hello!”ÂÂ
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In the context of today’s culture in which it seems our society is ever all the more marked by busy-ness, and as one who is being continually challenged in my pastoral vocation to be pastorally accessible, I invite you to come by and visit my blog site and/or web site, chat for a bit over a warm cup, a bite to eat, and/or a brief virtual byte over the net. Of course, if you are actually physically in the area, please feel free to stop by the church office and say, “Hello!” in person yourself! I am one who enjoys taking interest in how God is working in others’ lives, drawing people into a deeper experience of the Lord’s power and presence for God’s glory and our good. So, come on by and say, “Hello!” (”You’ve got mail!”) My aim/msn/yahoo instant messenger/messaging screenname is: rexespiritu |
It appears as though being busy is just the way it is these days. But something in me seems to want to throw up at the idea of resigning myself to some godforsaken state of trans-conscious nirvana in which the business of busy-ness, if you will, winds up robbing me of the life that God intends for us in Christ. As another quote attributed to the same work of Henri Nouwen goes for today, on Wednesday, January 31:ÂÂ
Jesus wants us to move from the “many things� to the “one necessary thing.� It is important for us to realize that Jesus in no way wants us to leave our many-faceted world. Rather, he wants us to live in it, firmly rooted in the center of all things. Jesus does not speak about a change in activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart. This change of heart makes everything different, even while everything appears to be the same.2
As I found myself preaching last Sunday, I was realizing anew myself that this is a process which involves a paradigm shift not just in our doing, but more importantly in our very being. The Word proclaims through us the good news of the Gospel that says to the world around us, “Look and see!!! I AM making all things new!â€? And indeed many among us are experiencing the truth of this Word authored by the Holy Spirit of God being written anew in our life together at this special time and place called First Presbyterian Church in New Castle, Indiana.ÂÂ
Dear ones, let us not be too busy to taste and see it – That the Lord is good indeed and that God’s love continues to endure among us.ÂÂ
In Christ,
Pastor Rex
1 http://www.pcusa.org/pastorselders/dailyquote#jan22
2 http://www.pcusa.org/pastorselders/dailyquote#jan31
