Busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal.

Eugene Peterson

These sober words came my way this week and I’m grateful for them. For I do not lack good or bad things to do with my time. My list of want-to-dos is not short. Thus, it is easy for me to overload my life and create a miserable bursting-at-the-seams schedule. When that happens I enjoy very little of the good things I’ve filled my life with, nor do I do any of it well.  

This is why it was so good to spend the morning in review, recalling what I have heard from the Lord in the past few months and years about my life. It left me feeling pleasantly focused and at peace. Doing this frequently keeps me on tract and less likely to fall into the pit of overcommitment. Even better, these times of recollection add fullness to my understanding of my purpose and calling.  Here’s an example:

A few years ago I was lamenting* to the Lord about the lack of time with my girlfriends. It felt like those relationships were neglected and stagnant; for I longed for so much more. In a flash, God brought to mind my book club that meets 5 to 6 times a year. Each evening spent with these three wonderful women has been meaningful and satisfying. This gentle rebuke brought gladness and gratitude to the longing. Then He said:  Savor these gatherings.  This is all you get for now.  In this season, your attention belongs elsewhere. AH! Such clarity. Though it did not feel like enough, I could see I was not without connectedness. Somehow, I had fallen into thinking it should be better. I must be doing something wrong. But in truth, life was full with young kids, family and work. A moment ago I felt empty, but this new perspective led me to acceptance and filled me with peace. And though my hunger for more did not dissolve, it quieted and I was no longer weighed down by it.

Over the holidays my friend Emily and I were texting back and forth, trying to find time to meet for coffee. Eventually, she wrote:

I’ve come to the conclusion that until I retire from teaching and don’t have my children living at home, breaks are not breaks for me. But then I don’t want to speed up time to get to that. I’m just recognizing that in this season I don’t always get to do what I want to do.

Here was the Lord reminding me through Emily, the importance of keeping my limits and priorities in mind. We did not meet for coffee. Simply knowing we wanted to was all we got.

If you relate at all, if you, too, need to stop, review and remember, here are three questions I often ponder and pray through:

Who and what is most important to me this week, month and season?

What would it look like to make these people and these purposes my priority?

What will I have to give up to live out these priorities?

This third question is so key to living out the first two, because if we don’t name what we have to give up, it is so easy to be tricked into thinking we should be doing more.

I hope you can and will come away from your busyness for a time of reflection and review. Or even just refreshment. It is so worth it. You are so worth it.

* Lament is a word used to describe what happens throughout the Psalms.  It is to express and to wrestle with the difficulties and darkness we encounter in life.  It is not complaining in some whiny poor-is-me sort of way, which is never helpful.  It is an honest expression of struggle and part of how we move from despair to hope.

Photo by Walter Sturn on Unsplash