I’m really not busy…
Three times in the last week or so, I have received a communication from someone which says 'I know you are very decorated…' and these have stuck in my mind. 1 of these said 'I am sure you are very decorated—I know that I am.'
A couple of things struck me immediately. The first, and most urgent, was: What take I said or done that has provoked this comment? Am I looking tired, or hassled? Have I failed to give people my attention? Have I not replied to messages? What is information technology that makes me look 'busy'? If I am giving off signs that I am busy, that suggests that I broadcasting a signal 'I don't take time for you'—and that is worrying.
Christianity Today recently republished their best forty articles from the final 36 years of their existence, and they have only reposted the 1981 article by Eugene Peterson 'The Unbusy Pastor'.
The ane piece of postal service certain to get unread into my wastebasket is the one addressed "to the decorated pastor." Not that the phrase doesn't describe me at times, but I decline to requite my attention to someone who encourages what is worst in me. I'm not arguing the accuracy of the adjective; I am, though, contesting the way in which it is used to flatter and express sympathy.
So my 2d question is, how exercise I reply to this comment? In our culture, are we allowed to say 'Really, I am not very decorated'? I practised saying this in my head, and it sounded odd. What kind of people say 'I'm not decorated'? When my late female parent retired, one of her comments was 'I don't know how I e'er found the time to piece of work!' Even in retirement, she was busy. We appear to take created a civilisation where the only people who are not 'busy' are people who are, well, a chip sad. Busyness has get the mark of a full and satisfied life. But is information technology really so?
So what exercise we mean when we say 'I am very busy'? Information technology might really mean 'I am in a part which demands more of me than I desire to give.' This might exist the example for those in 'secular' employment or with responsibilities for family members. We might genuinely exist in a state of affairs which, through little choice of our own, makes unsustainable demands of usa. Economical pressures accept recently robbed us of an hour's sleep; we sleep as well little on average; and the hyper connectivity of digital devices makes it worse. Clergy need to take this reality seriously. They are in the incredibly privileged position of having more control over their own time than most in their congregations; woe betide the vicar who takes the morning off and and then complains when commuters who were up at 6 am don't attend an evening coming together!
Peterson takes a more than ruthless approach to the possible reasons behind this phrase:
I (and nearly pastors, I believe) become busy for ii reasons; both reasons are ignoble. I am busy because I am vain. I want to appear important. Pregnant. What better way than to exist busy? The incredible hours, the crowded schedule, and the heavy demands on my time are proof to myself-and to all who volition notice-that I am important…
The other reason I become busy is that I am lazy. I indolently permit other people decide what I will do instead of resolutely deciding myself. I permit people who do not understand the work of the pastor write the calendar for my day'south piece of work considering I am too slipshod to write it myself. Only these people don't know what a pastor is supposed to do.
I believe that the phrase 'I'thou very busy' is sometimes a cry from the heart—I experience oppressed by the burden of the things I am supposed to exercise—either from a sense of guilt, or demand, or the agendas others impose on me.
I of my favourite books on time management isPractise Information technology Tomorrow by Mark Forster, who also wroteGet Everything Washed and Nonetheless Take Time to Play.Marking refreshingly blows away a lot of nonsense virtually time management—including the idea that you can ever 'manage' time. The issues about busyness we face are not issues oftime management, only issues ofselfdirection—how we perceive things and how we organise our lives. Romans seven is actually highly relevant to our 'time management' issues!
Just Forster as well highlights early on a key reality: if we are 'busy' and then information technology might merely exist that we are over-committed. How much piece of work tin can you do in an 60 minutes? Respond: an hour'due south worth. But if y'all are committed to ii hours' work in an hour, no corporeality of 'fourth dimension management' is going to solve that. You actually need to cut down on your commitments. That is more easily said than done, just it still raises a challenge for me. Do I accept on likewise much? Am I likewise quick to say 'aye' to things? Even if a large part of the commitments nosotros have isnot under our control, at that place are ever parts which are.
Saying 'I am very busy' tin can limited a dissimilar kind of frustration as well. It might non just be the corporeality of piece of work we have, only the way it comes to us. Abiding demands and a steady stream of interruptions can frustrate our sense that nosotros are achieving annihilation. (Ask my wife!) Mark Forster again puts his finger on this: what nosotros need is 'sufficient focussed attention' on the things that are important. And that means setting bated some of the immediate demands. Practise emails need to be answered on the twenty-four hours they are received? Can I talk to that person tomorrow, rather than right now? Does that meeting need to be this week, rather than side by side? This is where we need to apply conscientious judgement; putting people offcan communicate the 'I am very decorated' line. But surely better to say 'I'chiliad not likewise decorated; allow's chat tomorrow' than 'Yes, I can talk now…but I have a lot to practice!'
Only there is also a third possibility: nosotros make ourselves busy because that is the style we gain a sense of significance. If we were not busy, there might be the gnawing sense that we are not, later on all, totally and absolutely indispensable to the projects we are involved in and the people we are in contact with. And that is deeply threatening unless we take a well-rooted sense of identity and conviction in who we are.
God gives us two gifts which can serve as a defence confronting these feelings. The first is the gift of Sabbath. The command to rest (non but me, only all my household) is at once an invitation to trust in God for his provision (the crops will still grow, the emails volition wait another day) too as a bulwark against the presumption that the universe will not run unless I practice my bit to keep it going. In fact, Sabbath rest can often exist a key to fruitfulness. I recently saw an interesting 'infographic' which suggested that the world'due south greatest creative geniuses had simply achieved what they had considering they took residue seriously.
The 2d is the gift of calling. If we are involved in the things we are because God has called us to them, is our level of busyness a reflection of that call? Is God calling us to be busy? In one sense, yep. We are to 'redeem the time' (Eph 5.16). But I am not certain that this is e'er the source of my busyness.
Peterson believes information technology is vital to accost this question if we are to exercise what God has called to. For this in full-time Christian ministry, this has meaning consequences.
I want to be a pastor who prays. I want to cultivate and deepen my human relationship with God. I want all life to be intimate–sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously–with the God who fabricated, directs, and loves me…
I desire to be a pastor who preaches. I want to speak the discussion of God that is Scripture in the language and rhythms of the people I alive with. I want to know the Scriptures thoroughly, personally, intimately; and then be able to say them again to the people around me…
I desire to be a pastor who listens. A lot of people approach me through the calendar week to tell me what is going on in their lives. I desire to take the free energy and time to really listen to them so when they are through, they know at least ane other person has some inkling of what they're feeling and thinking.
And so: are yous busy? What is the reason for your busyness? Is it poor use of time? Or circumstances beyond your control? Do you demand to give more 'sufficient focussed attention' to some of the things you are doing? In the cease, is your activity borne out of your sense of God'southward phone call on your life? Are you gratis to say to someone 'I'yard non decorated'?
(Part of this piece was start written v years agone, and other parts three years ago. I call back it is nonetheless relevant.)
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