I get busy now and then, but I always clean my lifestyle and throw away clutter. I do this so I can have quality time for what really counts to me---God, family, workouts, reading, and blogging. I write web content for clients, I teach the bible, I hold church sessions, practice martial arts, cook now and then, see friends and chat, plus a lot more. But I always keep things simple. I make sure unimportant things I have to do now and then don't take up much time.
Sometimes you find yourself needing to do unimportant things, like attending some "important" meetings or beating "urgent" deadlines. If you really think about it, most of these things are nothing but trash. Some meetings are important and some deadlines ought to be finished before due date. But a lot more others are garbage. They have become "important" only because the world says so and you have become a fool for the world.
I find time to reply to friends on FB or through text messaging, if I have the load. Some people have the habit of not replying, probably thinking it gives them a good image---like they're so busy or so great they're unreachable by mortals. Their excuse is often they're too busy. Really? I'm just glad God isn't. I can talk to him anytime. Often, he seems unresponsive and many think it's because he's too busy as well. Nope. We fail to hear him when he replies or talks. It's because we're too busy to hear his voice.
Fondness for looking busy will later change your outlook. Unimportant things become important. Stupid things become smart. Then you'd spend lots of time doing what just wastes your life away. Then, in your old age (or death bed), you realize how you wasted your life on purely stupid things and then you start appreciating the simple things around you, relishing in them because your time is almost up.
I've seen dying old folks realize what's really, really important in life only when they were too old to change anything, or when death knocked on their doors. The every thing they thought was stupid and foolish when they were young, alive and kicking, now they see as the only thing that makes sense. I feel happy and sad for them---happy that they finally see truth, sad that they realize it somewhat too late.
Anyway, they pick up the pieces while there's still time, though short. Then they wish how they should have seen this long ago when they still had the youth and vigor to do the things that really mattered in life instead of busied themselves with things the world told them were important.
The world is a liar. A busy liar. So I always make it a point not to listen to it. It makes convincing arguments wherever you turn. It's highly intellectual and scholarly, no wonder it dupes a lot of people, especially those who imagine themselves intelligent. It has ads and promos in every strategic place in this world. But you have to guard your mind.
I see this even among church ministers. They busy themselves with everything that doesn't count in heaven--worship programs, church programs and activities, concerts, literary and music fests, and whatever it is they've invented to keep their members busy and far from boredom, lest they think of transferring to another church. That's what scares ministers to death--losing people. So they busy themselves in ministry. Sometimes, that makes them lie, too.
Yeah, even church ministers listen to the world and get fooled by it. The more the world troubles them the more they get themselves busy, not busy doing something useful and which counts in heaven, but busy with worrying and creating more problems. When faced with their imagined problems, they'd make things work. They'd make things happen. And that births more problems later. Well, for a time it may seem to work. It may even seem brilliant. But eventually, it fails and self-destructs. Believe me, I've seen them happen too many times.
They never learn from their Master who, when aboard a sinking boat amid a terrible squall in a lake, merely slept. And if his disciples didn't wake him up, he'd just sleep throughout the storm. We should learn to sleep soundly through storms. Makes things simpler and life less busy.
Busyness never really solved or accomplished anything. That's the whole truth. It just looks good and productive, but anything it produces is a house built on sand. Yup, man's religions seem to have stood the test of time for centuries, but in reality they had crumbled a long time ago. You got to see these things in the spirit, not in the flesh. In the spirit, they were all built on sand.
And people have learned to love looking busy. I sometimes watch grade school teachers complicate something they can easily teach in simple ways if only they want to. But no, they have to make it complicated so their pupils wouldn't think their lessons are too easy to figure out. And this thing actually has become viral. I mean, not just teachers---everyone has become addicted to busyness and looking sophisticated. They think being so make them accomplished.
So what if you accomplished a lot of things--in your career or profession--by being so busy, but your marriage or family or relationships or character have all gone down the drain?
I just do enough. I give my best, to be sure, but I never go beyond my best. Going beyond it is a total waste. Often, even my "best" doesn't make things work as they should. It just reaches a certain level---sometimes just halfway or less what's supposed to be---and then either plateaus or goes down. I just trust that God has a purpose for it. I stop there and wait for something unusual to happen.
But I never go beyond that. Why should I? I won't waste time on something I see has made my capability reach its marginal utility or diminishing return. I'd rather spend much more time with the One who could do something about it and provide real solutions. Anyway, there's no such thing as doing "beyond your limit." Your limit is your limit. And even those who think they have done more than their best is just imaging things. It's self-conceit.
I know that if I just try a little more (which is different from doing beyond your limit) I'd get better results. But that would take a toll on my time, energy and mood. In short, make me too busy. And I've seen it happen everywhere---folks who lose their characters when they get really busy. Sure they accomplish a lot, but it grows the monster within them a bit more each time until the whole thing practically takes over them. The monster becomes them. That, I hate happening to me.
The world will tell you how great you are with the results of your busyness, but it's all a lie. It's not real greatness--it's just your ego growing more.
Sometimes you find yourself needing to do unimportant things, like attending some "important" meetings or beating "urgent" deadlines. If you really think about it, most of these things are nothing but trash. Some meetings are important and some deadlines ought to be finished before due date. But a lot more others are garbage. They have become "important" only because the world says so and you have become a fool for the world.
I find time to reply to friends on FB or through text messaging, if I have the load. Some people have the habit of not replying, probably thinking it gives them a good image---like they're so busy or so great they're unreachable by mortals. Their excuse is often they're too busy. Really? I'm just glad God isn't. I can talk to him anytime. Often, he seems unresponsive and many think it's because he's too busy as well. Nope. We fail to hear him when he replies or talks. It's because we're too busy to hear his voice.
Fondness for looking busy will later change your outlook. Unimportant things become important. Stupid things become smart. Then you'd spend lots of time doing what just wastes your life away. Then, in your old age (or death bed), you realize how you wasted your life on purely stupid things and then you start appreciating the simple things around you, relishing in them because your time is almost up.
I've seen dying old folks realize what's really, really important in life only when they were too old to change anything, or when death knocked on their doors. The every thing they thought was stupid and foolish when they were young, alive and kicking, now they see as the only thing that makes sense. I feel happy and sad for them---happy that they finally see truth, sad that they realize it somewhat too late.
Anyway, they pick up the pieces while there's still time, though short. Then they wish how they should have seen this long ago when they still had the youth and vigor to do the things that really mattered in life instead of busied themselves with things the world told them were important.
The world is a liar. A busy liar. So I always make it a point not to listen to it. It makes convincing arguments wherever you turn. It's highly intellectual and scholarly, no wonder it dupes a lot of people, especially those who imagine themselves intelligent. It has ads and promos in every strategic place in this world. But you have to guard your mind.
I see this even among church ministers. They busy themselves with everything that doesn't count in heaven--worship programs, church programs and activities, concerts, literary and music fests, and whatever it is they've invented to keep their members busy and far from boredom, lest they think of transferring to another church. That's what scares ministers to death--losing people. So they busy themselves in ministry. Sometimes, that makes them lie, too.
Yeah, even church ministers listen to the world and get fooled by it. The more the world troubles them the more they get themselves busy, not busy doing something useful and which counts in heaven, but busy with worrying and creating more problems. When faced with their imagined problems, they'd make things work. They'd make things happen. And that births more problems later. Well, for a time it may seem to work. It may even seem brilliant. But eventually, it fails and self-destructs. Believe me, I've seen them happen too many times.
They never learn from their Master who, when aboard a sinking boat amid a terrible squall in a lake, merely slept. And if his disciples didn't wake him up, he'd just sleep throughout the storm. We should learn to sleep soundly through storms. Makes things simpler and life less busy.
Busyness never really solved or accomplished anything. That's the whole truth. It just looks good and productive, but anything it produces is a house built on sand. Yup, man's religions seem to have stood the test of time for centuries, but in reality they had crumbled a long time ago. You got to see these things in the spirit, not in the flesh. In the spirit, they were all built on sand.
And people have learned to love looking busy. I sometimes watch grade school teachers complicate something they can easily teach in simple ways if only they want to. But no, they have to make it complicated so their pupils wouldn't think their lessons are too easy to figure out. And this thing actually has become viral. I mean, not just teachers---everyone has become addicted to busyness and looking sophisticated. They think being so make them accomplished.
So what if you accomplished a lot of things--in your career or profession--by being so busy, but your marriage or family or relationships or character have all gone down the drain?
I just do enough. I give my best, to be sure, but I never go beyond my best. Going beyond it is a total waste. Often, even my "best" doesn't make things work as they should. It just reaches a certain level---sometimes just halfway or less what's supposed to be---and then either plateaus or goes down. I just trust that God has a purpose for it. I stop there and wait for something unusual to happen.
But I never go beyond that. Why should I? I won't waste time on something I see has made my capability reach its marginal utility or diminishing return. I'd rather spend much more time with the One who could do something about it and provide real solutions. Anyway, there's no such thing as doing "beyond your limit." Your limit is your limit. And even those who think they have done more than their best is just imaging things. It's self-conceit.
I know that if I just try a little more (which is different from doing beyond your limit) I'd get better results. But that would take a toll on my time, energy and mood. In short, make me too busy. And I've seen it happen everywhere---folks who lose their characters when they get really busy. Sure they accomplish a lot, but it grows the monster within them a bit more each time until the whole thing practically takes over them. The monster becomes them. That, I hate happening to me.
The world will tell you how great you are with the results of your busyness, but it's all a lie. It's not real greatness--it's just your ego growing more.
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NONJOINER discusses how you can quit joining the crowd and see how the bible helps you think independently to develop your unique person as God wants you to and develop an authentic social life.