Busy, Buzzing Words

 

“Busyness” is an integral part of our American society.  We are familiar with the treadmill-type routine of maintaining a household while discipling children, 24/7/365, as well as supporting the wage earner in the family, and being involved in church activities and homeschool support groups and possibly even more things like scouting, music lessons, and sports.

 

“Redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:16) is a common phrase that Christian support group leaders relate to because it is how we live.  The idea of “multi-tasking” or judicious use of our time helps us feel like we are “redeeming the time” because we rescue time from idleness and turn that into time filled with relevance.  Anyone serving others quickly learns that time is a valuable commodity that cannot be erased or retrieved once spent.

 

Let’s take this popular notion and turn it a bit, as you would a kaleidoscope, so that what we’re seeing now is something completely different.  Let’s twist the kaleidoscope and put the focus on the word “redeem.”  Words from one of our pastor’s past sermons came to mind.  He mentioned that “redeeming” means “restores us to our Heavenly Father”.  Henry Morris said it means “to rescue from loss.”  So, if we take that phrase, “redeeming the time” and instead of thinking that we need to do something to make time worthwhile let’s replace it with the word restore.  If we think of it as the restoration of our time that brings us closer to our Heavenly Father then we can gather a new meaning from the phrase.

 

Andre Seu wrote in a World Magazine article that as grown-ups we “accrue duties like barnacles.”  As we examine these words, we learn that accrue means to accumulate, duties means responsibilities, and barnacles means marine crustaceans that have a hard shell and become attached to submerged objects.  That sounds like we’re drowning in our responsibilities!

 

Let’s turn to God’s word to try to dig our way out of these busy, buzzing words, for we learn from the Bible that this struggle with time is not a new problem for mankind.

 

In Joshua 3:9, Joshua admonishes the children of Israel to hear the Words of the Lord before they take upon themselves the task of crossing the Jordan and entering the Promised Land.  This should remind us to consult the Word of the Lord before we take on any task, especially one that will require more responsibilities from us.  Moses asks the Lord to “teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”  (Psalm 90:12)  So let us wisely seek His counsel given through His Word as we serve others in our support groups.

 

Eric Hoffer, a social commentator and author, wrote, “The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time.  It is, on the contrary, born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life.  When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else – we are the busiest people in the world.”

 

So much in our busy lives pulls us away from spending time with the Lord, and with our families.  We make excuses, which really mean we just push it down on the priority list and make other things more important by devoting our time and energy to the other things.

 

In Colossians 3:23 we are reminded to do our work with all of our heart as though working for the Lord and not men.  So our work should be for the Lord and not for the glory we may gain from earthly recognition or power.  In Philippians 2:12-13 Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit works through us to use our time in doing God’s will.  Even our most mundane tasks can help restore us to our Heavenly Father when done in His will.

 

So let’s scrap off those barnacles that are dragging us down, and focus on time that is restorative, so that we can present ourselves to the Lord as workers approved, not ashamed, and rightly handling the Word of Truth.  (2 Timothy 2:15)

 

Buzzing around with you~ Mike and Paula Anderson

copyright January 2008, all rights reserved