Busyness During Thanksgiving
We live in an extremely fast-paced world. Productivity and efficiency are the king and queen. We want more. We want faster. We want quality. We want to be a part of everything that is going on. Social media is great but it doesn’t alleviate the problem. If anything it raises and sets a standard that no one can attain. We look at what he or she is doing and how well it’s going. We try to do the same or take it to the next level, adding more on us and busying ourselves even more. Today, it’s not enough to be busy but you have to sound busy doing big, important things or else you’ll get overshadowed by the next person who is MORE busy doing MORE important things.
All this pressure can so quickly drive us to do more and more on top of our already busy lives. It’s such a subtle shift to get there. “Oh, I can do that.” “Ooo I have to be at that thing with so and so.” “If I work just a few more hours this week I can get enough money for this or that.” Before you know it, you find yourself unsatisfied and stressed as you’re driving 10 miles an hour over the speed limit trying to get to the next thing on your to-do list.
With Thanksgiving literally around the corner, the question I ask myself and want to ask you is this: What are you thankful for right here and now? It’s a worthwhile question to ask yourself. Busyness can become an easy coverup for our hearts. Issues we don’t want to deal with. Unsatisfied places in life. Pride of looking important.
There are so many good gifts in this world. Comfort. Food. Sports. The next big vacation. Money. TV shows and movies. Friendships. Instagram accounts. Clothes. Work…even busyness! The problem is not necessarily those things but in us, in our own hearts. We have this insane ability to take these gifts and twist and distort them into something they were not intended to be. We turn these gifts into idols. An idol is anything that we see as more worthy than God. We place our hopes and desires in these things clinging to their empty promises. These idols cannot bear the weight of our hope, our satisfaction, our joy because inevitably they will fail. They will rust. They will move away. They will decay. They will lose interest. They will be short-lived.
The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them become like them,
so do all who trust in them.
Psalm 135:15-18
There’s only One that can bear the weight of our hope and suffering and He is Jesus. He took on flesh and stepped into this world as the perfect, sinless, Savior. He bore the wrath of God on the cross in order to bear our hopes, struggles, and joys. He rose victoriously trampling over our sin and idols. This is who we put our faith in, the God who overcame sin and death. Because of that we know He will never wane. He will never fade. He will never bring disappointment. He is constant. He will never leave nor forsake. He is strong and can bear the weight. For this we can truly be thankful.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:4-7
As we frantically get our cars loaded up for travels or prepare our homes for friends and family or labor over meals full of meats and casseroles, be sure to stop and ask yourself: What am I thankful for right here and now? Am I satisfied with the gifts around me? Am I trying to cover up my dissatisfaction or boredom with busyness? Have I let busyness overshadow the gifts that are already in my life? Am I thankful for the Savior who bore the weight of my sin so I can be saved, redeemed, and made anew? Rather than passing down wrath and punishment, He showed us immeasurable kindness, grace, and mercy. May we lay down our busyness and idols and give thanks for the One who is worthy of all our worship, Jesus.