Too Busy for Rest

We, as humans, easily get tangled up in busyness; living in this hyper-speed world- it’s hard not to. Everybody is on the “go”, with “so much to do, so little time”. I think for women its worse, I dare to say. We almost never have an empty to-do list. Think about it, when’s the last time someone asked you, “what are you doing today?” and you reply, “I've done all I need to do, today I’m resting. “ NEVER! If we have nothing to do usually we feel guilty for procrastinating or being lazy.

Sometimes we have normal lives, not too busy, not to quiet- there’s time to do fun things and rest when we need to. Sometime, like me, we even have seasons of quiet time. It’s hard to accept them as seasons, because they’re often very uncomfortable. What do you do with your time? How do you rest when you aren’t tired from a hectic day? What is it even like to rest for a WHOLE DAY? Re-programing my mind to think rest instead of bored has been a challenge. But it’s revitalizing not to be tied down to a calendar and have all the time in the world to love my friends, serve them, take care of David, and spend lots of time with Jesus. These seasons are VERY rare and you may only get two in a whole life time!!! I’m living it up but also learning what not to do when this season ends for me. During my quiet season I've been able to see very clearly the women around me living in a fast paced life and missing it completely.

Think about this- how good of a witness are you to non-believers while running around with your head-cut-off? I don’t mean having the time to evangelize- I mean do you represent a life where God is in control?

Reading Jesus Calling on October 24^th, the author shared that Jesus created us for rest- why do we go on feeling guilty when we listen to the needs of our body? Jesus is saying for us to “walk with ME down a path of peace. I want you to blaze a trail for others who desire to live in My Peaceful Presence.” Our job is to show non-believers what peaceful living looks like? Do you do that?

Honestly, this rocked me! It makes totally sense. EVERYONE is too busy for their own life-so why would a non-believer trade their too busy life for my too busy life? There is nothing different about my life and theirs except I actually have MORE to do because I've added “religion” on my to-do list. From the outside looking in, they’d be crazy to trade.

This got me to asking, would a non-believer look at my crazy, stressed out life, where I don’t have any time to myself and say, “Now, there is a person who’s life I want, how do I live like her?” NO! They pity me! They say, “poor thing, she works so hard and never catches a break.” They might even go as far as to say, “God’s in control of her life, she says--but she looks miserable. I don’t want that God in control of my life.”  Non-believers who see Christians that are crazy busy, sympathize for us! Why shouldn't they? We’re too busy to notice that we've gotten too busy. Does our life show that God is in control- providing for our needs, or us spiraling out of control struggling to provide them ourselves? The Bible says if we’re walking with him, he’ll lead us down a path of peace (Psalm 23:1-3). Is your path peaceful? If not, you may not be walking on the right path.

This is what I mean when I say, is your life witnessing to non-believers? If we are living continually stressed out, and worry about our to-do list, we aren't showing the world what a joy it is to have the King of kings leading our lives. If God really is in control he’d be leading you down a peaceful path, even when everything seems to be falling apart. If your life has no peace in it- you better check yourself, because you’re not on the right one. God is peace and therefore if you’re following in his wake, you will be at peace even when you’re hard at work doing His calling.