We're Not Busy, We're Called

I've been every eager lately to tell everyone how busy I am all of the time. I want to share how I spend 12 hours a day in the office and plenty of time on the weekends and at least three nights a week on the road. Neglecting to take into account the efficiency of my work, I subliminally make it a goal to prove I am busier than the person I'm talking with. What I've come to realize is that everyone else is doing the same thing. Everyone is busy.

Now, this seems like a perfect opportunity to launch into a convicting message about not cluttering our lives with busyness and taking more personal time to spend with our family and with God. That all sounds good on Sunday morning but is difficult to apply Monday through Friday when you're trying to survive in the business world during a recession, or when you're trying to meet a construction deadline, or when there are hospital visits to make, or patients who need care.

No, my point is not to pull you from so many hours of work or discourage you from pouring yourself into your job. My point is to encourage you to remember why you are doing what you are doing. Yes, I agree with the importance of structuring a day in which you spend quality time with family, in the Word with God and alone, but I also believe our "busyness" should not be something we agonize over.

Pastor Steve DeNeff of College Wesleyan Church in Marion, Ind. referred to a survey by Heather Arendt when addressing this issue. Arendt identified three kinds of toil: the rituals, the labor, and the calling (DeNeff's terminology, Arendt's concept). The rituals are the daily actions necessary to keep us going like eating, cleaning, taking care of ourselves, etc. The labor refers to a person's career. DeNeff describes it as "things that transcend rituals, [and] seek to perpetuate or preserve goodness, truth and form/beauty." He says people not only do things because they are good at them "but because they are trying to push back the encroaching darkness, to stall entropy, [and] to make life better for others." The third level is the calling. It's our pursuit of excellence through daily, sometimes mundane, details in order to make an imprint on the future and leave a legacy. Arendt observed that over the last 400 years the top two levels, the calling and the labor, have gradually melted down into daily rituals and have drained the dignity, meaning and hope out of our labor and our calling.

The point is do not allow your busyness to turn into agony and stress. They aren't just "to-do lists." They represent your chance to impact this world. Our jobs, our work should not be a drag. It is our chance to positively effect His Kingdom, to push back the encroaching darkness. It is our calling.