Tuesday, July 29th

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10 Minutes with God:
Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

I don’t know if you have noticed this or not but it seems that everyone is really busy these days.  I know that I am.  As a matter of fact, one of the most common answers that I hear when I ask someone how they are doing is “Good, just really busy?”  That is probably the most common answer that I give when I am asked the same question.  We live in a seemingly perpetually overwhelmed culture.

In a men’s small group that I meet with each Wednesday morning, we recently read a book entitled Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung.  As you can probably guess from the title, the book is addressing this very same issue.  At the conclusion of the book I felt a little disappointed.  Despite the fact that the author had warned early on that he would not be offering conclusive and simple steps on how to resolve the issue of business, that is exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted someone to offer 5 easy steps to a less busy life.  I am not sure that this is available.

DeYoung however does very effectively expose much of what is at the root cause the the business epidemic.  One of the primary culprits is our propensity to say yes to the good at the cost of the great.  There are more opportunities than we can count coming at us every day.  Good, meaningful opportunities that anyone could (and they do) make a compelling case warrant our involvement.  The issue is not that the opportunities are negative or destructive (although those are available as well), it just that they shrift our focus from that which is primary, “the great work” that God has set before us.

This brings us back to the book of Nehemiah.  Yesterday we looked at how Nehemiah models focused and purposeful living.  Look at again at the efforts that his enemies make to slow or stop the work that he is doing to restore the wall that surrounds Jerusalem:

Nehemiah 6: 1-12:

6 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem[a] also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 8 Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God,[b] strengthen my hands.

10 Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” 11 But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?[c] I will not go in.”

In these verses, Nehemiah’s enemies try three different times to distract him from the work that God had set before him.  Each time Nehemiah is resolute and remains firmly where God has placed him, on top of the wall.  As we discussed in yesterday’s 10 Minutes with God post, in contrast to Nehemiah’s unwavering focus on the work at hand, often times I feel like my eyes are constantly shifting between warring priorities.

Ultimately, what I am coming to understand is that the problem is not that I am busy.  In many ways, I should be busy.  Nehemiah was busy.  You don’t rebuild a wall in 52 days that had been laying in ruins for over a century and a half by working half-days.  There is a lot to do in our families, in our community and in the church.  The question that I need to ask and deal with honesty is not whether or not I am busy but rather if I am busy with the right things?  Have I taken my eyes off of that which is primary in the pursuit of that which is secondary?  When properly ordered in our lives, we like Nehemiah, can say to all the distractions around us…”I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”