“How Busy is Too Busy?”
Psalm 46:1-11
Sunday, May 29, 2011

Introduction: Last Friday Tami and I got up for our ‘day off’ and proceeded to do some chores for the day, then we had a shopping errand to do, and back home for lunch. After lunch we did a little more work around the house. The next thing we knew it was time to go pick up the kids from school. We looked at each other and wondered where the time went. It seems like we are so good at filling up our schedules, even on my days off. Our lives are so full of activities, that it seems like we hardly have time to think a thought.
On the other hand, there are some who might just sit and watch TV all day, or sit in front of the computers without getting any kind of physical or social activity. Or there are those who are monks who spend their lives in monasteries. So the question I want to ask this week, is how busy is too busy? How do you know how much activity to put into your life, and how much rest you need? How do you know when you your life is unbalanced?
I think these are very important questions for us to look at and try to get a better handle on.

I. Mental, Physical and Emotional Exhaustion-

a. Schedule- The truth is, most people don’t think too much
about their schedules. For the most part, people just let their schedules come to them. If the kids have an event, they put it on the schedule. If someone wants to get together, they plan it without thinking twice. This is because much of what we do in essence gets planned for us: Girl Scouts, baseball, school events, church events, family events, and on it goes. There is so much that can fill up our schedules.
People’s schedules are so busy that families regularly eat meals out at fast food restaurants. There is no time to cook, so you just hit the McDonalds or Carl’s Jr. You pull in, get what you want, and then off you go. In fact, because of the busy schedule many people eat their meals in their cars while they are driving to the next event!
Because people see everyone else living in this way, they don’t think much about their busy schedule. It doesn’t seem right or wrong to them, it just is. All this busyness is actually creating undue stress in people’s lives. This stress is leading them to mental, physical, and/or emotional exhaustion. If you were to look up the definition of exhaustion, you would see words like: “drained, fatigued, weary, worn-out. People don’t know they are exhausted because they don’t stop to find out.
b. Why do we let ourselves get so busy?- Why do we let
ourselves get this busy? The first reason is because of poor time management. As I said before, most people let their schedules direct them, instead of them directing their schedules, Often times we do things that could maybe be delegated to others. Maybe you get up and make your kids breakfast, and pack their lunch, and make their beds. At some point, kids are old enough to do some of these tasks on their own. To do well at time management we also have to learn how to say “no” to those things that are not the best for us, or that will create undue busyness. There is an old proverb that says: “To accomplish more, do less.”
Second, we have fewer support structures. Some families might have grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. around them. These other family members in the past helped each other out. Maybe you couldn’t get off work to pick-up your child from school, so your mom or dad picked up your child for you. Without this support system, you are left to do more on your own.
Third, we buy into the expectations of others. Society as a whole is busy, and we buy into this thinking, allowing ourselves to get busy, seeing it as normal. EX. On your day off, instead of thinking about having some time of leisure, you might go to the amusement park in the morning, a movie in the afternoon, and then dinner at night.
Fourth, it is about making too many choices. EX. Think about a Thanksgiving dinner. You have so many choices of food. There is the turkey, potatoes, yams, jello, olives, salad, rolls, and on and on the choices go. You think to yourself, I’ll just have a little of everything. The next thing you know your plate is so full that you can’t eat it all without getting stuffed. But because you took the food, you feel like you have to eat it. And in the end, you make yourself sick by eating too much food./ This is how it is with our schedule, we do a little of everything, and the next thing we know, our schedule is overly stuffed!
Fifth, we are so overloaded and tired that we get less done. We waste time not being productive because we are too tired (mentally, physically, or both) to get ourselves working. EX. Think about a freeway. When a freeway gets past a certain number of cars that can travel smoothly on the freeway, the traffic slows down, maybe even getting jammed./ The same is true about our lives. When we exceed a certain amount of busyness, our brains get jammed.
c. Dealing with exhaustion- All of this leads us to become
exhausted. In fact, I’m exhausted just talking about it, much less having to live it!
We are exhausted mentally, because our minds are always thinking; always going; we are having to remember not only our own things, but things for our children as well. Our minds are always engaged in what we are doing, and even thinking about what we have to do next. We go, go, go, and our minds go, go, go.
We are physically exhausted, because we don’t allow ourselves to sit down. Sometimes I have to tell Tami to sit down for a moment and rest, because she is always needing to do something else around the house, or something else for the kids. Plus, with all the activities that are planned, you usually don’t get to your own needs into late in the day, and then you stay up late. Since you get less sleep, you find yourself physically tired from busyness and lack of sleep.
This all takes a toll on our emotions. Have you ever noticed that when you are tired you are less patient? More prone to anger? When you are tired you get frustrated more easily? This is because our emotions are worn thin, and we cannot keep our negative emotions under control.

II. How to Relax- (Exodus 31:12-13)
a. Getting it done today- We live our lives thinking that if we
don’t get it done today, then we might not get it done at all. Yet, there are very few things that fit into the category of “have to.” What we don’t get done today can surely get done tomorrow, or next week, or maybe it doesn’t need to be done at all. The truth is, most people know how to be busy, but they don’t know how to relax. Our bodies were not meant to have this kind of stress on them.
So what is the answer? The answer is that we need to learn how to relax and get rest. You are too busy if you can’t take time to relax.
The challenge for most people is that their work is never done; they
always have something they “should be doing.” Actually, we think there is something we ‘should’ be doing. I know I have this challenge in my job. My job is never done. There is always someone else I can visit, or another meeting I can plan, or another lesson I can write, or another book I should read. Most of us are like this; we always have something left undone.
Because of this, people have to give themselves permission to relax. They have to actually PLAN relaxing into their schedules. Sometimes Tami and I realize that we have been too busy, and so we won’t plan anything for my day off. We might sit down and watch a movie together. OR, we might sit down and take time to do a little reading. OR, we might go out for a leisurely lunch.
For others, relaxing might include gardening, or working out. The key is to know your body, and what will rejuvenate your body. What do you need to do to recharge your battery and increase your energy? What do you need to do to clear your mind?
Too busy is also when you don’t make time for your kids; or if you don’t have kids, too busy is when you don’t make time for your good friends. These important relationships need to be nurtured. If we don’t make time for them, then we will struggle in them. Instead of being a joy in our lives, as God has designed these relationships to be, they become stressful, because they are filled with guilt and conflict.
b. Time with God- Ultimately, too busy is when we don’t make
time for God. God created us to have a day of rest. But God also created us to have a Sabbath. An important part of our Sabbath Day (which for many is to be Sunday), is that we use time in this day to commune with God.
The idea of a Sabbath day is that it is about letting God create us all the more. It is about getting where God wants to be physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Sabbath reminds us that God created us, and that we don’t have to take care of everything ourselves. Sabbath is about learning how to trust God, and not thinking that you have to handle it all on your own.
The problem with our busyness is that we are too caught up in ourselves; we are too caught up in what we think WE are supposed to accomplish. When we throw ourselves into our work, or into an over busy schedule, we end up losing ourselves. Why? Because we are trying to create ourselves, but God has already created us. We need to learn how to understand who God created us to be.
In Exodus 31:12-13 we are not just told about the need for a Sabbath, we are reminded why we need this Sabbath rest. The passage says: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Say to the Israelites, You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.’”
This ‘rest’ time with God should actually be a daily event. If you are too busy to have some quiet time with God each day, then you are too busy. Illus. Often times when a shepherd is leading his sheep to the quiet waters so that they might get refreshment, the sheep will stop along the way and drink from the filthy, polluted pools. Of course, these pools are very unhealthy for the sheep. The shepherd has to literally LEAD them to the clean pools.
We too need this clean pool for refreshment, and that pool is God’s word. There is no better way than to start your day with a little quiet time with God and God’s word. This will be your strength to carry you through the day.

III. Change of lifestyle- (Psalm 46:1-11)
a. Learning to relax- I don’t know if you have ever had this
happen, but it has happened to me a number of times, and that is my getting sick when I take a vacation. Not only do I get overly busy sometimes, but I especially get busy right before a vacation. That is because I am trying to get my normal work done, but also the work that needs to be done while I am gone. Do you know what I’m talking about? You really have to do double-duty to get ready to go on a vacation.
On more than one occasion, once I start my vacation, and try and relax, I get sick. There is actually a term for this, it is called ‘leisure sickness.’ This happens to people who aren’t used to slowing down. So when they do slow down, they have an inability to transition from a working environment to a non-working environment. Thus in the letdown, their body is more susceptible to sickness. People might say, ‘If that is the case, then it is better for me not to rest.’
This is not true. Rather, we need to realize that we need to change our lifestyle so that our bodies learn how to relax. Once we do this, then we can relax without getting sick. God created us to work AND He created us to rest. Without rest we will fail to have the full and complete life God created us to have. That is why God made it a commandment from the beginning of time for us to rest. That is why God gave us the example of resting Himself, so that we might realize its importance.
b. What to do- Let’s take some time to think about what we
should do in our time of rest. Once we have given ourselves the permission to rest, and understood the need and importance of rest, we must learn how to rest. Resting isn’t necessarily about sitting in a chair and doing nothing, although you could do that. Sometimes we don’t do much at all, sometimes we do just a little, and sometimes we take a nap. But other times we can be active, and it still serves as rest.
Let’s use our scripture reading, Psalm 46, to help guide us in this. Psalm 46 is a beautiful psalm because of its close connection with the Sabbath theme. I’m not going to look at every verse, but a select few that will explain more of what rest and Sabbath are about.
The first part of the Psalm talks about God as a refuge in the midst of natural chaos. Let’s read verse 2: “We will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.” The author of this psalm looks to God as sovereign over the natural forces of creation. This connects with the first reason given to observe the Sabbath: because God has created the world. When we rest, we tend to reflect more on our life and God, and we remember that God is the creator of this world and our lives.
But then the psalm moves on to talk about God as a refuge in the midst of foreign enemies. Verse 6 says, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.” God is sovereign over creation, but he is also sovereign over nations; He is also over the uproar of our lives. God cannot help us work past the uproar if we don’t slow down and let God work. God cannot help us in our mental, physical, and emotion exhaustion, if we don’t take the time to release it to God. It isn’t until we slow down that we think about doing this.
Then comes the finale of the Psalm in verse 10. It reads: “Be still, and know that I am God.” ‘Be still.’ The word in Hebrew here definitely carries a sense of stillness, but it also carries a sense of stopping some activity that you are currently engaged in. That’s why the New American Standard Bible translates this, ‘Cease striving.’ It has to do with stopping whatever frantic activity you are engaged in. It is like a command. Another way to say this could be, ‘Stop all your crazy activity and just be.’ But do we know how to “just be?” That is a challenge.
These are the words we need to hear. Sabbath starts with stopping. Stopping the work that we do. Stop pretending we have it all together. Stop living by the cultures values. Stopping from the busyness of life. Sabbath starts when we stop.
c. The Life God Created for us- The truth is, Sabbath is
important for our living the life God created us to have. Sabbath is that weekly rest we need to have to help our bodies maintain a high standard of living. Sabbath is the time to stop and reflect on all that we are doing in our lives, and see where we have strayed, so that we might re-adjust to again follow God’s purpose.
Illus. When I went to Texas a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t have cell. phone reception, so I didn’t worry about my cell phone. I had internet access, but I didn’t access it that much. I didn’t know too many people there, so I was able to have a lot of down time; a lot of time of rest. I was able to rest my mind, my spirit, my body. I was able to reflect on my life, and think about what God is doing in and through my life.
When we are too busy, we don’t think about what we are doing. When we are too busy, we don’t stop and think about the life God created us to have. We are so concerned with getting every task done, that we don’t even worry about whether or not it is a task God even wants us to do. We can so easily get stuck in the routine of life, that we start doing things out of habit, and not because it is what we should be doing!

Conclusion: So how about you, are you too busy? Do you take time to relax? Do you make time for God and others? Do you honor the Sabbath Day and keep it holy? Do you take time for yourself? Have you even stopped long enough to think about being too busy? What do you do in your life that you think you ‘should’ do, but could either stop doing or delegate away? The truth is, most people are too busy. They just don’t know how to stop being too busy. Give yourself time to rest, relax, and have Sabbath time. Give yourself permission to slow down. Then God can do even more in and through your life. Amen.