Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Those who want to come with me must say no to the things they want, pick up their crosses, and follow me.” [Matthew 16:24 (GW)]
“I’m so busy!” If there’s even a remote possibility that we might be asked to do something we’d rather avoid, we can cut off the request at the pass by starting the conversation with those words. It’s the perfect out. On the other hand, when said to us, we can’t argue with it.
Both Luke and Mark tells the story of four men who weren’t too busy to carry their paralyzed friend on a pallet to see Jesus in Capernaum. Once there, they were unable to get their friend through the mass of people crowding into the house where Jesus was preaching. Undeterred by the crowd, they hauled the paralyzed man up to the roof, dug a hole through the thatch, and lowered him down to the room. Determined to bring the paralyzed man to Jesus, these friends weren’t too busy, even when helping him became a major undertaking and an engineering feat!
Consider Job’s friends—despite their business and family obligations, they weren’t too busy to drop everything and travel from their homes to offer him solace. These men didn’t just stop by to leave a covered casserole and offer quick condolences; they silently sat with Job for seven days. While there were errors in their theology, their intentions were good.
Mark tells us about a blind man in Bethsaida whose friends brought him to Jesus and begged the Lord to touch and heal him. The man regained sight because his friends weren’t too busy to bring him to the Lord. Consider the seven men the early church commissioned to serve the needs of the widows in their midst. These men already had jobs and other obligations but Stephen, Philip, and the others weren’t too busy to take on an extra task for the church.
No matter how filled our calendars are, we all manage to find time to do the things important to us. Even though Martha was busy preparing supper for Jesus and the disciples, she could have found time to listen to Jesus. It’s simply a matter of priorities. How much of our busyness is necessary and how much is needless or unproductive? How much of our time is spent working ineffectively, keeping busy while accomplishing nothing, or giving undue importance to trivialities? Are we intentional about the way we spend our time? While God doesn’t expect us to give an automatic “yes” to every request, He probably doesn’t want an automatic “no” either and “I’m busy” is just an easier way of saying, “No!”
Being busy can hinder more than our relationships with people; it hinders our time with God! No matter what’s on our schedule, we must never be too busy for Him as was Martha. Yet, we often start our prayers with that very complaint or answer His call with that response. He knows exactly how busy we are and how we spend (or waste) our time and energy. We need to listen and pray before deciding we’re too busy for friends, family, or God. Even though He runs the entire universe, God is never too busy for us; how can we possibly think we’re too busy for Him? Jesus told us the greatest commandment was to love God and the next was to love our neighbor as ourselves. May we never find ourselves too busy to do either one!
One reason we are so harried and hurried is that we make yesterday and tomorrow our business, when all that legitimately concerns us is today. If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there. Let us submit the list to Him and ask Him to indicate which items we must delete. There is always time to do the will of God. If we are too busy to do that, we are too busy. [Elisabeth Elliot]
Devotions of the Heart 