Busy-ness Kryptonite

Me: Hey, I'd love to get together sometime soon to talk ministry stuff with you.
Pastor Friend: I'm busy until next week, how about Wednesday.
Me. I'm out of town. Friday?
Pastor Friend: No, I'm booked. How about the middle of next month? I've got tons of stuff to do, meetings and conferences. You know.

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Me: So, how are things going in your relationship with God?
Student: OK, it's just lately, with school and tests coming up, I just haven't had time to do much reading or praying.

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It's not moral relativism. It's not politics or causes. It's not even heresy and denominational strife that is killing the church.

It's Busy-ness.

These conversations are very common these days. I have them all the time. I've been the one making excuses for why I can't meet, or why my life has gotten too hectic to stop for 10 minutes to read the Bible. Being busy has become the cancer eating way at Christianity. It is our kryptonite.

I find it odd that we live in a world where technology has made everything move faster- cars, communication, work. Yet, we seem to have less time than ever. I remember being in college and being told to enjoy all the free time you have now, it'll never be like that again. Now, the students I know seem to never have time. I am always hearing that this test is coming, or that projects deadline is looming, or etc. They have legitimate concerns about doing well in school to get a good job, but I am starting to wonder: At what cost?

The hectic pace of life so many of us live leads to a complacency of faith. Which breeds apathy toward Christ. Which leaves us dead. We have given at the office, at school, even to our families so much that we have nothing left for God.

We need a Revolution.

It takes work to maintain a good relationship, and a good relationship needs to be growing. With Christ, we have sat ourselves down and put out roots. We have 'gotten saved' or been rescued by Christ, and we feel that is good enough. Sometimes its an issue of thinking that we've gotten heaven, why put in any extra effort? I need to work harder to succeed in school or at work, but I don't need to work harder at knowing and pursuing God.

We are abusing grace. And we are being selfish.

Our relationship with God is not ours only. My faith affects my wife, children, friends and co-workers- the list goes on. When I am apathetic or complacent in faith and the acting out of said faith, I am not giving them my best. That's to say nothing of my sub-par worship to God. We have taken to heart this idea that "My faith is personal," which is true- but its not the whole story. My relationship with God- what we talk about, what He convicts me of and encourages me with- is very much personal. But how that relationship changes me (and it must change me or it is not a vital relationship) does affect those around me. If I am sleeping, they are not challenged or pushed in their faith. But if I am energized, engaged, dare I say revolutionized? Then my faith begins to breathe into them. They too come alive.

I want to be a revolutionary Christian not so I can feel good about my personal faith, but so I can see others come fully alive. Saint Irenaeus said "The Glory of God is man fully alive." I want to be fully alive, and I want to lead others to that state, to bring glory to God.

I look around at my fellow Christ followers and see more people weighed down by the stresses of school, work, family and just general busy-ness than I see people buoyed by a vibrant faith in Christ. I want to see us stop trying to find a way to fit God into our lives, and start trying to find a way to work our lives around God. I'm not advocating setting aside three hour prayer sessions, or 24 hour Bible readings, I'm just saying if we care as much about seeking God as we do about getting a grade or meeting a deadline or watching that show, we might be a little different. We might see those stresses through the eyes of God, and thus see them as they are.

So, I challenge you. Find time to spend with God. Make Him of first importance. Before studying. Before work. Before family time. All of these endeavors will be made more fruitful if done as secondary to pursuing God.

We are desperate for something to believe. For something that makes us realize that there is something worth living for, something worth striving for. We need a Revolution of Faith.

So be the Revolutionary in your life.

Seek Him.

First.