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PROGRAM D-7447
Are you busy? Your response is likely to be “Are you kidding?” Who isn’t busy? But I’m asking some questions to help you think about putting boundaries on your busyness. I asked, “Are you busy for the right reasons?”
Here’s the next question to ask yourself:
Has busyness become my identity? Do I take pride in my busyness?
Some years ago I recognized this was true of me. I found my self-worth, in part, in staying very busy, accomplishing lots of things, and having people notice. Often I would hear, “How do you do all you do?” and I would take pride in knowing that people noticed how busy I was. Mind you, for the most part I was busy doing things in ministry, doing things for Jesus, but far too much of my motivation was to get the praise and admiration of others. That was who I was.
As God’s Spirit revealed this spirit of pride to me, I began to pray that God would deliver me from being addicted to busyness. I truly believe it can become an addiction, when we are driven to keep going and stay busy because—well, because that’s who we are! We have built our worth on our accomplishments instead of on Christ.
One way you can tell if this is your problem is to notice how much you talk about how busy you are. Do you wear your busyness like a badge of honor, a point of pride? You may be doing good works, the good things God put you here to do, but if your busyness is all about you instead of pure service to the Lord, then you need to pray about this. Ask God to deliver you—not from doing the good things he wants you to do, but from that sense of pride and identity based on your busyness.
I’ve noticed how we are prone to play one-upsmanship. You know what I mean. We say, “Hi, how you’re doing?” and the other person gives a litany of how busy they are. Then we reply with our own list, as though we’re trying to prove that we’re busier than the other person. And on it goes. Subtly, without realizing it, we’ve taken on a spirit of pride in how busy we are.
I hope you’ll ask yourself this question—“Has busyness become my identity? Do I take pride in my busyness?”—and be willing to let God change that attitude in you, if necessary.