Busy

Greetings friends,

I have been suspiciously absent from the blog for a little while now. As I sat in my office this morning and tried to pinpoint a reason for my absence, the usual answers came up. I've been working too much for Veritas. I've been too busy with training for the MS 150. I've been too busy working on stuff for Tree Anthem. Somewhere along the way in the conversation I had with myself, I felt like I was a boy scout showing off his merit badges. "This one's for all the long nights I've spent in the office. This one's for all the music I'm writing..."

It felt horrible.

Do I really want to wear my business as a badge of honor? I mean I guess at some point along the line, someone decided that time was money, and so the busier I am the more I must be worth, right? The more effort I put in, the more people respect me, right? Are these really the priorities I want to live by?

It's not to say that we should all just camp out on the couch and not do anything. Keeping oneself busy is a pretty great way to keep oneself out of trouble if my middle school experience has anything to say about it. But this is different. This is taking pride in my busy-ness.

And not to mention that my busy-ness has kept me from things that I adore doing. Last night I didn't read my bible at all because I was too busy catching up on my rest from spending the Easter holiday being too busy. If I repeat that sentence again my heart's going to burst. Really? I was worshiping Jesus so hard this easter that it literally wore me out to the point that I could no longer worship Jesus?

Sarah has said on more than a few occasions that she hates going out to dinner with me when I've been busy, because I tend to spend the whole evening apologizing for how tired I am. My busy-ness is enough to keep me from being fully present with my wife? Not cool man. Not cool at all.

Some of what keeps me busy is worth while. Some of it is (I think) an attempt to earn another merit badge. And so, as is the case every now and again, I need to take a step back and re-establish priorities. Why am I saying yes to the obligations that I am saying yes to? And if I say yes to this, what will I inevitably have to say no to later? Would it be worth it? Is my appointment calendar kingdom building, or Jason building?

I challenge us to take a look at our merit badges this morning, and see why we say yes to what we say yes to. What does it cause us to have to say no to? Are we really just worshiping the art of being busy?