Many people like to proclaim that we live in a fast-paced world. It seems like people make themselves too busy to enjoy the simple and important things in life; by making themselves so busy, they are missing out on some of the greatest blessings God has for them. Why do people make themselves too busy to be in relationships with their family, a church community, or their neighbors around them? Too often we just say people are too busy, but I've been wondering how to tackle the problem of busyness and that starts with asking, "Why do people make themselves so busy as to avoid the blessings God intends for us to enjoy?"
We usually accept busyness as a valid excuse for people to avoid community, so are churhes are filled with many busy people who don't intimately know anyone. Again, I ask, "Why do we make ourselves too busy for community?"
Busyness keeps us safe from the sins in our life that would be revealed if we were to experience community. Community is dangerous. It's similar to marriage in that we must lay down our life and put others first. Community involves a commitment to one another and a relinquishment of some of our freedom for the sake of those around us. When someone else is in need, we stop what we are doing to meet their need. When someone needs to talk, we stop what we are doing to listen.
But community is even more scary than just giving up our time. If we are to be in genuine community we will have to be in relationships with people. Our sinful heart cannot be hidden if we interact with other people in authentic community. Our true nature will shine through, or we will find the community to be too stressful to belong in and find ourselves fleeing from it.
We cannot be in community because we are busy. And it appears that we busy ourselves because we are selfish and don't want to deal with who we really are. We have to deal with those issues if we are ever to experience community the way God intended it.
Watch out for the potholes.
