Today I will begin a short sermon series on busyness. One of the dangers I see as I approach this topic is that people may think, “This is just the way life is. There is nothing we can do about it.” I know that our lives are extremely busy these days, and there are many responsibilities calling for our time and energy. I won’t pretend to be able to offer an answer to all of the issues surrounding our busyness, but I do think there is ancient wisdom to be gained for this seemingly modern problem. I simply ask you to listen with open ears. Perhaps you will hear about some practices or ways of thinking that may be helpful as the busyness piles on.
1 Kings 20 tells the story about a prophet who was trying to bring home a lesson to King Ahab. While this story is not about busyness per se it contains a phrase that illustrates a danger of busyness. This prophet had disguised himself as a soldier who failed to guard a prisoner, and the prisoner escaped. The prophet described the situation in this way, “While your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” (1 Kings 20:40).
Again, this passage is not primarily addressing the problem of busyness in our lives, but in the words of author Kevin DeYoung in Crazy Busy,this passage is a “perfect description for our age.”
He continues, “We are here and there and everywhere. We are distracted. We are preoccupied. We can’t focus on the task in front of us. We don’t follow through. We don’t keep our commitments. We are so busy with a million pursuits that we don’t even notice the most important things slipping away.”
Perhaps you, like me, can see yourself in at least part of that description of our times. If so, I hope you will be here and be encouraged by this new sermon series called, Shifting Gears.
– Deryk Pritchard, Preacher