Busy-ness

Ruth Bell Graham gave us all something to ponder when she said “Beware the barrenness of busy-ness.” The thesaurus lists some synonyms of barrenness:  unfruitfulness, unproductiveness, ineffectualness, and  wasteland. There is definitely a barrenness that comes from being busy and over-committed, when our priorities get out of whack and the “cares of this world” choke the life out of us.  Busyness, even in ministry, can cause us to neglect “abiding in the vine” — that relationship with Jesus that is life-producing and life-sustaining.  We have probably all experienced it.  We neglect our quiet time in God’s Word and in fellowship with Him, and then even those good things that we are doing become works of the flesh instead of works of the Spirit.  That’s when the stress of doing it in our own strength makes us susceptible to “burn-out”, defined as a state of exhaustion and discouragement.  I Cor. 15:58 makes it clear that God never intended us to burn out — in fact, He says “Be ye steadfast, immovable, ALWAYS ABOUNDING in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”