Busyness

Do you say 'yes' to requests when really you mean to say 'no'? Do you feel permanently trapped by your 24/7 lifestyle? While offering practical help to busy Christians, Tim Chester also opts for root-and-branch treatment: you need to deal radically with the things that are driving you. If you're busy because of the following; 'I need to prove myself'; 'Otherwise things get out of control'; 'I like the pressure/money'; think again! At the root of our 'slavery' are serious misunderstandings, often reinforced by our culture. If we want to be free, then we need to counteract them with God's word. It's important to manage our time, but it's more important to manage our hearts. God has promised his rest to all who are weary and burdened (Matthew 11:28). It's up to us to accept it.

In light of September 11, 2001, we have all come to realize that our world can change in the blink of an eye. In a time of tragedy we tend to turn to the Spiritual and God. It is sometimes frustrating to find that in our most desperate hour we find no solace because we do not recognize His voice. It is to our detriment that we have allowed our busyness to replace a developed relationship with God. The church of today is attempting to accommodate, entertain and retain people rather than providing real answers to real problems. I believe that this is why the church has not progressed to a greater degree toward the mark of "Gloriousness", which Jesus foretold. Why? The church of this age is so BUSY with the BUSYNESS OF DOING; we cannot hear what God is saying. We have become Human "doings" rather than Human "beings". We have lost the art of LISTENING as well as the courage to simply, DO what God is DOING and SAY what God is SAYING. Two household chores "washing" and "ironing" depict what I'm speaking of in a remarkable manner. How do you remove "spots" and "wrinkles" from clothing? Washing and ironing. But, since the art of doing laundry is a thing of the past we miss this analogy. How do you remove "wrinkles" from clothing? You iron them out. What is ironing? It is the application of heat and pressure, which smoothes out the wrinkles. As we move this into the human arena we are confronted with vehement resistance. We do not like "heat" or "pressure". We live in a push button society and a microwave world. Everything is instant! God instructed Israel during the wilderness journey to not erect permanent structures. Why? They were simply passing through to their ultimate destination. They dwelled in temporary structures and did not amass hordes of things or obligations in life. Many of us are stuck where we are today because we have allowed ourselves to become overly encumbered by possessions and obligations. We are so enslaved to this world that we can neither hear God nor follow Him completely. It is God's desire to take each believer into His laundry room and prepare us for service. He wants us to realize that just because we are busy at religious things it does not mean that we are spiritual. We need to learn the four causes of burnout and avoid them. It is imperative that we develop "Ears to Hear" in our relationship with God. As we learn the secret of relationship and God's provisions through His covenant we will find restoration to what He designed us to be. It is my desire to see each person free from the bondage of performance so they can enjoy the freedom of relationship.

The Social Life of Busyness engages with the assumption that busyness is taking over everyday life by exploring busyness at work, at home and during leisure time. In a world where the notion of being busy is commonly experienced, and even expected, how should we understand the reasons for busyness?

Identify and tackle stressful issues in your life through articles, questions, quotes, Scripture, and related exercises in this Discipleship Journal Bible Study.

______________________ 'Too much to do? Stop and read this' - Guardian 'For a fresh take on an eternal dilemma, Overwhelmed is worth a few hours of any busy woman's life – if only to ensure that she doesn't drop off the bottom of her own “To Do” list' - Mail on Sunday ______________________ In her attempts to juggle work and family life, Brigid Schulte has baked cakes until 2 a.m., frantically (but surreptitiously) sent important emails during school trips and then worked long into the night after her children were in bed. Realising she had become someone who constantly burst in late, trailing shoes and schoolbooks and biscuit crumbs, she began to question, like so many of us, whether it is possible to be anything you want to be, have a family and still have time to breathe. So when Schulte met an eminent sociologist who studies time and he told her she enjoyed thirty hours of leisure each week, she thought her head was going to pop off. What followed was a trip down the rabbit hole of busy-ness, a journey to discover why so many of us find it near-impossible to press the 'pause' button on life and what got us here in the first place. Overwhelmed maps the individual, historical, biological and societal stresses that have ripped working mothers' and fathers' leisure to shreds, and asks how it might be possible for us to put the pieces back together. Seeking insights, answers and inspiration, Schulte explores everything from the wiring of the brain and why workplaces are becoming increasingly demanding, to worldwide differences in family policy, how cultural norms shape our experiences at work, our unequal division of labour at home and why it's so hard for everyone – but women especially – to feel they deserve an elusive moment of peace. ______________________ 'Every parent, every caregiver, every person who feels besieged by permanent busyness, must read this book' - Anne-Marie Slaughter, author of Why Women Still Can't Have It All

This book is deeply personal to me. I want to help others trapped in the same cycle of doing at the expense of being. I know how lonely and soul-crushing it feels. But the good news is that it doesn't have to be that way! I want to help you figure out what matters most in your life, and challenge you to get busy (yes, busy) spending your limited, valuable time living life in harmony with your priorities. Believe me, I've heard plenty of horror stories and seen firsthand the carnage that workaholism can bring to lonely families. I've listened to numerous heart-wrenching accounts of hurting marriages and wounded children. And I've talked with a lot of really good people whose souls have been left drained and whose inner-depth has been left dangerously shallow.

“Startlingly original and deeply moving.... Chang here establishes herself as one of the most important of the new generation of American writers.” — George Saunders A Recommended Book From Buzzfeed * TIME * USA Today * NPR * Vanity Fair * The Washington Post * New York Magazine * O, the Oprah Magazine * Parade * Wired * Electric Literature * The Millions * San Antonio Express-News * Domino * Kirkus A wry, tender portrait of a young woman—finally free to decide her own path, but unsure if she knows herself well enough to choose wisely—from a captivating new literary voice The plan is to leave. As for how, when, to where, and even why—she doesn’t know yet. So begins a journey for the twenty-four-year-old narrator of Days of Distraction. As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, she reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run. Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you? Equal parts tender and humorous, and told in spare but powerful prose, Days of Distraction is an offbeat coming-of-adulthood tale, a touching family story, and a razor-sharp appraisal of our times.

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone,” Blaise Pascal wrote in 1654. But then there’s Walt Whitman, in 1856: “Whoever you are, come forth! Or man or woman come forth! / You must not stay sleeping and dallying there in the house.” It is truly an ancient debate: Is it better to be active or contemplative? To do or to think? To make an impact, or to understand the world more deeply? Aristotle argued for contemplation as the highest state of human flourishing. But it was through action that his student Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Which should we aim at? Centuries later, this argument underlies a surprising number of the questions we face in contemporary life. Should students study the humanities, or train for a job? Should adults work for money or for meaning? And in tumultuous times, should any of us sit on the sidelines, pondering great books, or throw ourselves into protests and petition drives? With Action versus Contemplation, Jennifer Summit and Blakey Vermeule address the question in a refreshingly unexpected way: by refusing to take sides. Rather, they argue for a rethinking of the very opposition. The active and the contemplative can—and should—be vibrantly alive in each of us, fused rather than sundered. Writing in a personable, accessible style, Summit and Vermeule guide readers through the long history of this debate from Plato to Pixar, drawing compelling connections to the questions and problems of today. Rather than playing one against the other, they argue, we can discover how the two can nourish, invigorate, and give meaning to each other, as they have for the many writers, artists, and thinkers, past and present, whose examples give the book its rich, lively texture of interplay and reference. This is not a self-help book. It won’t give you instructions on how to live your life. Instead, it will do something better: it will remind you of the richness of a life that embraces action and contemplation, company and solitude, living in the moment and planning for the future. Which is better? Readers of this book will discover the answer: both.