Danny ChaiI hate it when people say that I’m busy. As in, “I know you’re busy, but…” I’ve decided to avoid saying that about myself as much as possible, that I’m busy. It’s not that I don’t have a lot to do. I just don’t want to radiate an aura of busy-ness. For two reasons.
One, it’s bad if other people think I’m busy. Service is fundamental to Christianity, right? In our G3 (SN. We need to clarify what G3 stands for, because Lee and I have been calling it a G2 and only recently found out that that’s wrong, that the 3 doesn’t stand for the number of people in the group) we recently went through Mark, and I was particularly struck by how Jesus says the greatest among you is the servant of all. Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Service is fundamental to Christianity. I feel like if people think I’m busy, they’re less inclined to ask me to help out, which gives me less opportunity to serve and fulfill a Christian calling. I hate that. I don’t want to be known as the busy guy, I want to be known as the guy who’s always available to serve. That’s important to me.
Two, it’s bad for me if I start to think of myself as busy. Jieun had an epiphany lately, which she can explain more accurately and incisively. But between work, church, Abby, household chores, finding a daycare person, finding fill-in daycare while finding a daycare person, and a host of other things, she had a ton of stuff to do and she felt overwhelmed. What she found though, was that if she didn’t think of things as being abnormally busy, and just recognized that this is just how life is, that normal life involves juggling many things, she was much less flustered and able to get much more done. It was all about the mindset: when she thought of things as busy, she felt overwhelmed, when she treated the many things she had to do as a part of normal life, she was much less stressed and actually got a ton done.
I think this is generally true, and is definitely true for me. No matter how many things I have to do, if I don’t have a mindset of busyness, I find I can get things done and still feel like I have significant time for people. It’s been easier since I’ve stepped down from doing church stuff, but it was true even when I was heavy into many things.
I think Mike’s sermon on Sunday echoed the same message. He’s focusing on obedience over thinking about how busy he is, and he’s very busy. But by doing that, he’s able to do more. I think the mindset is really important.
So I’m trying to not project a feeling of busyness, or give people a vibe that would make them think of me as busy. And I personally don’t like it when we talk about how busy everyone is, or how busy people in this area are, even though it’s completely true. I think it fosters a mindset that makes us feel like we don’t have time to serve each other, or ask each other for help.
It’s important to me because I’ve been convinced that life never really gets less hectic. At least that’s been my experience. As life goes on, you just have more and more to do. To wait for a less busy time might mean waiting forever. Better to figure out how to fit in service in your life now, than wait for a less hectic time that may never come. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Of course, sometimes we actually are too busy to have time for people, but that’s a different issue we need to deal with.