We often find ourselves busy, and Jesus was busy too. He was in such high demand that there were times when he didn’t even have time to eat. Does that sound familiar?
We all experience seasons when busyness is unavoidable. However, the more important question is what keeps us busy and why. Here are a few lessons we can learn from the life of Jesus.
Take Time Out
Jesus understood what was most important and how to prioritize, which allowed Him to say no when necessary. He recognized the significance of spending time alone with God. There was a rhythm to His life; He would retreat to a quiet place to pray and then return to His mission to engage with those in need.
He encouraged the apostles to do the same, inviting them in Mark 6:31 to “come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
If we’re not careful, we can become so distracted, rushed, and preoccupied that we end up with a mediocre faith. I appreciate what John Ortberg said: “If we want to follow someone, we can’t go faster than the one who is leading.”
Live Simpler
“He was born with nothing, lived with little and died with nothing. His simplicity was not accidental. He chose to live simply.” Richard Swenson
What Jesus identified as lacking value is exactly what the world pursues: wealth, power, and status. Our lives do not consist of the abundance of possessions we have, as stated in Luke 12:15. If our busyness arises from the materialistic pursuit of trying to keep up with others, then true contentment will remain unattainable.
The Right Kind of Busy
There is a kind of busyness that is meaningful. Some refer to it as “holy busyness,” which is directed toward God. Jesus’ life mission statement, “Everything I do pleases the Father” (John 5:30), was evident in everything He said and did.
The hard-working words of the apostle Paul, who was an evangelist, church planter, and manual laborer, also reflect this idea: “No, I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). He understood that his holy busyness stemmed from the grace of God.
To this end I labor, struggling with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:29.
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. 2 Corinthians 3:5
Strength and determination begin with God, not merely from our own actions. When we look to the life of Christ for guidance, we see that having His priorities in order didn’t mean He wasn’t busy.
As Ortberg writes, “Jesus often had much to do, but He never did it in a way that severed the life-giving connection between Him and the Father. Jesus never conducted Himself in a manner that interfered with His ability to show love when love was needed.”
There is a distinction between being purposefully busy—the kind of busyness that brings fulfillment and aims to achieve the meaningful work we are called to rather than being rushed, distracted, and exhausted.
Kevin DeYoung expressed it well when he said, “The busyness that is detrimental is not the busyness of work itself, but the busyness that focuses on the wrong things.”
We can reduce our destructive busyness and cultivate a healthier kind of busy—one that expresses love and compassion toward those around us, rather than fixating solely on our personal to-do lists.
Let our busyness reflect what truly matters by prioritizing the eternal over the temporary. We can embrace the promise of Jesus in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”