When people ask you how you’re doing – have you every included the word “busy” in your answer?
One NY Times article called “The Busy Trap” that went viral commented, “It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “So busy.” “Crazy busy.””
Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.
Yes, for most of us, busyness is a choice, and we kind of like it!
But what are its consequences?
One psychiatrist listed a few:
It is so easy with cellphones and BlackBerrys a touch away.
It is a kind of high.
It is a status symbol.
We’re afraid we’ll be left out if we slow down.
We avoid dealing with life’s really big issues — death, global warming, AIDS, terrorism — by running from task to task.
We do not know how not to be busy.
There are many, but we’ll focus today on the consequence for our neighbours, since Jesus said this was so important.
When I first moved to Ajax, it naturally took a little time to meet all our neighbours. Most memorably, two distinct families said the same thing when they met us. One said, “I’m really sorry we’re just meeting you, I had made cakepops for you guys, but then got too busy to bring them over.” Another said the same thing, “my wife was going to bake a pie to welcome you, but we got too busy.”
It’s heartbreaking – firstly because I could have had some excellent desserts, but also because it’s obvious how hectic our lifestyles can be, and how it inhibits forming lifegiving relationships.
Question: On a scale from 1 to 10 how busy is your life right now?
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Jesus always has the Pharisees, or religious lawyers, in mind as he teaches.
Pharisees were essentially seeking a checklist of laws they can work through.
Jesus says that wasn’t the point of the law. Look back to the beatitudes, the content that we started this series with. Jesus was always expanding the law to look at our motivations, not just outward actions we can check off our do/don't do list.
It's a good thing, because we know life isn’t like that. Life throws stituations at all of us that we never anticipated, and could never have listed in advance.
Jesus describes keeping God’s law with this line: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
He goes on to recognize, this is no checklist, this is very difficult: narrow gate to pass through.
Baggage doesn’t fit. All your religious background, credentials, money, power, etc. all get left behind if you want to go through this gate.
Every human can go through this door if we are willing to let go of all the sin baggage that keeps us from God.
The narrow path – or the cramped path – does not allow us to take with us the things we can carry on the broad path. What are those things?
Our failure to live this way, to go through Jesus’ narrow door, is due to our self-centeredness.
We are instinctively self-centered, self-loving. Fall.
40% of millenials say that "being self-promoting, narcissistic, overconfident, and attention-seeking is helpful for succeeding in a competitive world."
Almost 80% say that their friends use social media for those reasons.
So Jesus uses that against us. Uses our self-love to love others. He redeems our self-love.
Self-love is powerful. Usually our guide – now Jesus says it’s for others, too.
Jesus calls us to an awareness of others as God’s beloved children, too.
We’re not the only ones.
Prevents need for endless rules for every situation. Put self in other’s shoes.
Question: Describe the most self-centered person you know. What do you have in common with them? What characteristics do you share? Why is this so hard to admit?
