So busy we miss it.
“Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called out to the man, “Where are you?”…Genesis 3:8-9
God put man into the Garden of Eden and enjoyed his company. The Bible says God walked in the garden. Then one day God walked through the garden and had to say, “Where are you?”
Adam and Eve hid because they had broken God’s rules. This act broke the closeness of God and man and has marred it ever since.
God put Adam and Eve in the garden and gave them the rules of how to live there, and it could have been forever. They chose, not they were fooled, they chose to not listen and they chose to disobey. This is their choice and only theirs. Adam and Eve fell for the lie that we can chose our path and then tell God what we will or won’t do for Him and God will adjust His plans to come alongside us. Sometimes we even expect Him to bless the plans we came up with. But it does not work that way, God is on the throne, we are not.
Instead it works this way: God makes the plans and we need to come alongside Him, spend time with Him to find out what His plans are and then adjust our lives to follow out His plans in our lives. The Bible is full of people who made major adjustments in their lives to do the plans of God.
If we say “no Lord” then we are very deceived because those two words cannot go together. We cannot say “no” and still have Jesus as our “Lord”.
If Jesus is our Lord, and Lord of our lives then our answer must be “yes Lord.”
“Yes Lord” does not mean constant activity, I used to think it did. I was working and doing things for God and if it was a good thing to do, I should be doing it. I was making the plans and expecting God to bless them.
I wonder how many times God came walking in the garden and had to say, “Jane where are you?” and I never answered because I was so busy that I had no time to spend with Him and I missed it.
I hurt to think of all the time I missed because I was so busy.
We can be too busy for God, for our family, for our jobs, for anything and who knows just what we missed because we were too busy. Children often wonder if their parents even like them because they do not spend time with them or have fun with them. Life is about balance; balance in everything.
Putting in 180 hours in a 2 week stretch is not a balanced approach to life, ask me, it is often what Brian works.
Not putting in any hours into a work week is not a balanced approach either.
Our life should incorporate the “life wheel” pictured at the top. A wheel where all things are balanced in a perfect world. There are days, weeks where one segment will be out of whack – it happens. There will also be seasons. For example if you are in school, between studying and homework, life might be more focused on school for a while. If you have a new born baby who is completely dependent on you, that will take more time for a season.
When it is off balance for a while the wheel will roll with a lump, it will still roll, but it will be bumpy for you and all in your family, because your life intersects theirs. You will have to make an effort at including all the other segments in. You cannot roll a wheel that is out of round, it needs aligning and taking care of. Certainly we do as well when our wheel is out of alignment because it affects us physically, emotionally and spiritually.
Life will continue to roll with the lumps and bumps until you make the corrections to again have a round wheel. If you do not fix the wheel, you run in danger of ruining the wheel altogether and then having to trash it. Trashing it could mean burn out, burnt up (relationships especially in our families), sickness and our health.
Too much work will result in family feeling left behind. The one working feels like all they do is work. The one at home feels like all they do is the chores and manage the house and look after the kids. Both feel alone and the distance starts to expand and distance the relationship. This is a wheel with a bulge, bulges on wheels are dangerous and need immediate fixing.
Not enough work can lead to stress over finances and bills, lack of self esteem and depression.
Money. When we focus on money or the making of money, the spending of money or even the lack of money, our focus bends the wheel at this segment.
Fun. Lack of fun can kill the wheel as much as spending too much time having fun and not taking life seriously.
You. How much time do you take looking after you? 'Oh I am too busy to even think about it'. If that is your response, it will be a sad day where there is no you, because you were to darn busy to look after yourself. No one else will take care of you, it is your job.
God. How many times have we wondered if God was there, was He listening and yet we spend no time with Him. We expect Him to magically show up when we need Him but again that it is on our terms not His. God outlines how we are to live in partnership with Him in the Bible. Read it, talk to Him, talk about Him to your family, pray and include Him into our lives.
Balance. Like the Canada Food guide – balance is the key approach to a healthy lifestyle, be it eating or living. The key is again, our choice. All of it is our choice, what priorities are you placing on each segment of the wheel? If your life is balanced then all segments will get attention.
God gave us all of these things to complete us, not to master us, control us, or own us. If we follow God’s way, the wheel is round and things roll along smoothly.
Each segment in the wheel is vitally important to our life. Each segment is independent of the other and yet they are interdependent to make our life work. Just like people, we need each other even if we are independent – we still need other people to be complete.
We do not want to miss out, have life pass us by, have people pass us by, asking us the question “where are you?” as we rolled along on a bumpy wheel, all because we said: “I am too busy.”
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