Busy is a Four Letter Word

By Devin Dummel

There was a time not that long ago that when I was asked how things were going my typical response was “Good, we’ve been busy.”  I started to hear myself say that phrase over and over again, so much so, that I started to wonder if being busy was really that great of a thing at all.  Being a family of four we have always kept ourselves busy.  There’s always more to do: more sports, more projects more experiences and events.

But recently I've decided that I don't really like the word busy anymore.  In fact, I've decided, at least for myself, that busy is a four letter word, and it's going on the list of all the other "four letter words" that I shouldn't be saying.

If your family is like mine, then you understand the drive behind busy.  You can empathize with the crazy that is attached to the chaos.  You connected with that feeling when you finally are able to keep up your feet, relax and breathe just for a minute.  I don’t know what it is that drives us toward busy.  But I think our culture might be one of the culprits.  We live in a culture that always values being preoccupied with something.

But have you ever wondered what all this being busy costs us?  The reality is that while we are staying busy we are missing out on something else.  Every activity and every choice has a cost.  When we choose one thing we naturally miss out on other things.  So the question for us has to be are we spending our time and energy on the right things?

"Busy" becomes the environment that hinders us from evaluating if we are making the right choices and spending our resources as a family well.  Busy doesn't allow us to think or to course correct when things are getting off track.  Busy sends us into a freefall where we miss the things that matter most while doing things we want the most.

If busy is a four letter word, how do we begin to remove it from our day-to-day vocabulary?

Lamentations 3:25 says,

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”

If we want to make sure we are spending our time, energy and effort in all the right places, it would be wise to make space to slow down and discover how God says we should spend our time.  When you think about it, slowing down and saying no might be one of the most spiritual things we can do in life.

When we decide that we no longer need to stay “busy” but instead want to be obedient we will begin to spend our lives on the things that matter – not just in the moment but into eternity.

Jesus once taught about the importance to count the cost before choosing to follow Him.  We must do the same when it comes to our family and our hectic lifestyle.  We must count the cost and decide if what we stand to gain is worth what we could possibly lose.

The truth is some things are just more valuable than others.  We should never lose what matters most because we were unwilling to take the time to count the cost.