Is your life too busy? Do you ever wonder if your effort is only clouds and lightning with no life-giving rain?
Busyness: The New Addiction
“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.” —Thomas Edison
“One of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to make you busy, to make you hurried, to make you noisy, to make you distracted, to fill the people of God and the Church of God with so much noise and activity that there is no room for prayer. There is no room for being alone with God. There is no room for silence. There is no room for meditation.” —Paul Washer
“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau
Is your effort eternally productive or is it simply busyness? How can you tell the difference?
My Weekly Reflection Routine
Every weekend, preferably on Saturday, I strive to take at least 10-20 minutes to reflect and recalibrate my life. I believe this is one of the most productive times of my week.
Below are the five crucial elements of any successful weekly review. This format works for a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly review. You can do this review individually and/or with your spouse.
1. Pause
“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).
Before you can reflect on your life, you must find a quiet environment to pause physically, spiritually, and mentally.
2. Ponder
“Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- What things did I do last week?
- How did I use my finances?
- How did I steward my relationships with God, family, friends, church, and the lost?
- What did I learn in time with God?
- How are my goals and priorities?
- Did I follow good habits or bad habits?
- Would God be pleased with how I spent His time last week?
3. Prioritize
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31).
Ask yourself these questions:
- What should I cut from my life?
- What should I add?
- What should I change?
- What habits should I improve?
- How can I do all (live every area of my life) to the glory of God?
This is a time for humility, repentance, and recommitment as you strive to align your life with God’s priorities.
4. Plan
“Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:13-15).
- What commitments do I have (God, family, relationships, church, work, growth, etc.,?
- What goals and priorities should I focus on?
5. Pray
“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Ask the Lord that His will would be done in your next week and that He would empower you to pursue that will by His grace. Thank God for what He’s done and praise Him for who He is. Confess your failings to Him, knowing that He is “faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (I John 1:9).
Seeking Eternal Productivity
Never become so busy doing things that you have no idea if the things you are doing are actually counting for eternity.
If you take the time to honestly assess your life and to adjust to God’s will, you can live with confidence that your life is spent, not building your own empire, but building the kingdom of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Question: Which of these points resonated with you the most? Why is review and reflection critically important to the intentional Christian life?
9 Comments
Bianca Jago · October 13, 2018 at 5:36 am
Thanks for another great post Joshua; once again you’ve addressed a topic that I’ve been pondering a lot recently. It’s so easy to use busyness as an excuse for neglecting our real responsibilities.
Joshua Bontrager · October 16, 2018 at 5:43 pm
Bianca,
Thank-you!
Most of us (myself included) find it easier to be doing than to be thinking about what we should be doing. In other words, it’s easier to constantly tread the hamster wheel than it is to ask ourselves if we’re on the right wheel (or if we should be on a hamster wheel at all!).
Never forget that Christ took time to go apart with His disciples and rest. We too, must take that time to rest, recharge, and reflect, knowing that that time will prepare us to know and do the great work God has given us.
Clara · October 23, 2018 at 2:30 pm
Josh-
That example of the hamster wheel was just, wow, exactly what I needed to hear and think about! I’ve been thinking about this very topic the couple of days, especially after your sister’s blog post on balance. Thank you for sharing about how to review, pray, learn from what went well/badly, and move forward.
Melody · October 11, 2018 at 9:09 pm
I love reading your post. I was just thinking about “busyness” and I need to slow down and enjoy the moment. I like these simple steps to reflect and rejuvenate on my life.
Joshua Bontrager · October 12, 2018 at 11:32 am
Melody,
Busyness is addictive for many of us. However, it’s freeing to be motivated, not by busyness, but by the Holy Spirit.
May God bless you as you thoughtfully evaluate on what’s most important.
Chad · October 9, 2018 at 2:24 pm
I had this situation come up and it still has me reflecting. Let me see if I can express this…Josh you have hinted about things like being great stewards of our time. Doing things and following plans that will bring the most eternal good. Productivity for the Kingdom. Like what serves the Kingdom most. Most bang for the buck for the Kingdom. If two opportunities to serve others are both in front me and both are good which one do I do if I can only do one thing at a time? The one that impacts the Kingdom most right? So this kind of situation happened to me. I met a guy who had a need to pour a concrete slab, he explained that he had a bad ticker and needed help. I agreed to help him and we exchanged info. I called him the following day see if he still wanted help to pour, he said yes. I told him to schedule everything for the following day and that I would head to his City in my RV. The following day I’m in his City and ask if the pour was still planned. He assured me that it was. I get there and no concrete. I help prep for concrete and ask if it’s on its way. He says that He did not schedule it but all he has to do is call. So I say ok, are you going to call. He calls and they are booked and he asked if can come back some other time. I said sure but that next time he needed to make sure everything was ready because it’s not right for me to be wasting God’s time when I could be helping someone else (I said it nicer than that but I alluded to the fact that I needed to be the best Steward of God’s time that I could). He said let me show you where your thinking is wrong. I said ok. He said its not about tangible productivity that counts. It’s not about whatever you are getting done or not getting done physically speaking, it’s about whether you are doing it out of love. Basically it sounded like he was saying that I could come back next time and he could again have nothing scheduled and we could get nothing done, but that if I did it out of loving him then that is better than helping someone else to a greater degree if when I help them it is more out of duty and obedience and less heartfelt love. Basically if I went back to help him even thinking that we may get nothing done that it would take more love to do that sort of thing. Basically loving someone with nothing in return even if the return is just the satisfaction of being productive. Basically wasting time for someone is more loving than giving your time to someone else to be productive. This still has me thinking! Shed some light on this Josh!
Joshua Bontrager · October 10, 2018 at 9:49 am
Chad,
Great question!
While we do have God’s Word to guide us, we don’t always know clearly how we should use His time.
Sometimes God does call us to do things that seem like a waste of time. For example, Christ went across a stormy sea to help two demon-possessed men when He could have preached to crowds instead. Some might argue that preaching to crowds would have been a better investment, but it wasn’t the most important thing at the moment.
For your specific situation, I can’t tell you what’s best. There may be times when God calls us to “waste” time (by our standards, not His). There are also times to say no to such opportunities because there are other things God has for us. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to know which the difference.
In His earthly ministry, Christ was so in tune with His Father that He knew when the Father was working and where His next assignment was (John 5). The most important key to eternal productivity is to constantly seek the Lord through His Word and prayer so that He will direct our steps, fill us with joy and His Holy Spirit, and empower us to do His will.
Ann · October 9, 2018 at 1:39 pm
Reviewing is essential because if you don’t review, you don’t work out what has gone wrong. Without working out what has gone wrong, you cannot learn from your mistakes and correct them. I tell my students often that they are not the sum of the mistakes they’ve made, but of the lessons they have learned as a result.
Priorities – this is something that is resonating strongly with me right now, working out what they need to be and how to find balance. I’m thankful that my prayer and bible time are actually at set times, without that I would have struggled this last week and a half as grief over my mother’s death fought with the demands of making arrangements and still meeting the needs of my family. Having some priorities set firmly in place brings calm and solace when you need your faith the most.
Joshua Bontrager · October 12, 2018 at 11:39 am
Ann,
Well said. I’m sorry to hear about your mother’s passing. I pray that God would be with and that you would look to Him, the only source of true stability in the world.