Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)

Tonight at the grocery store, our seven-year old son Ian saw a poster with a smiling youngster about his own age in full martial arts uniform, inviting him to come take lessons (for a small fee, of course). He asked if he might be able to, and my immediate reaction was, “No, Ian… we’re not going to do that.” It’s not because I have some reason to not like martial arts. Chi knows martial arts, so it can’t be that bad… right?

As I pondered my immediate, and somewhat stronger-than-I-anticipated reaction to Ian’s question, the obvious reason for my rejection of his idea was our busyness. Karate would be just one more thing. It’s obviously not a bad thing, but it’s a thing. We only have so much room for things…

But, you see… in America… we have full access to as many things as we want. We can do anything and everything. Things dominate our lives. We go from one thing to the next to the next… sometimes juggling a few things at a time. There are so many options, and we don’t want to miss any of the things.

I know. I am a super-perp of this.

We are overrun by our busyness, and end up being stretched so thin that the things we are trying to do end up being more of a drain than an enrichement to our lives. That’s not to say we can’t get good stuff from all of the good things we’re trying to do. We certainly do. But the busyness can just minimize the good we can get.

I looked it up a bit tonight, but could not find anywhere that busyness is talked about as a “sin”. I’m certainly not trying to make a list of what to do and what not to do… just want to see if it’s one of the things God warns us about. But I couldn’t find anything topically like that. Hopfeully God will lead me to some scripture that deals with this idea. I am not ready to call the compulsion to keep doing more and more stuff a sin… but perhaps in a way it’s gluttony?

We mainly think of gluttony as being with food, but perhaps it could be with our time, and our activities. We fill every moment with some activity… some busyness. Is that gluttony a “sin”… or just making the most of our time?

I am certainly making no sweeping accusations or judgments. And, perhaps my thoughts tonight are really just for me. Perhaps God wants me and my family to not be busy. But at first glance it sure does seem that our culture is overwhelmingly busy. Going from one thing to another… never time to connect with each other, and just enjoy the people and the life God has given us. Again, it could just be me, take a look around and I think you’ll notice that we live at a blinding pace… just because we can. There’s so much to do.

I have no clever ending to this story. Just processing these thoughts tonight as they enter my head. Of course, I welcome your feedback and insights on the “threat” of busyness to our culture, and to us individually. Would love to hear your thoughts, too.