Feeling Busy?

Tonight at college group (yes, I've graduated, but I still go to the college group at my church) J.T. talked about one of the "Lies of America" -- that we're all so busy. According to some study, we have more free time than we used to. Of course, there's more stuff to do with our leisure time, like watch TV. Television is the big devourer of our free time (surprise, surprise). So we talked about busyness, and about Matthew 11:28-29, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls."

We discussed the things that make us the busiest, and the times when we feel the busiest. Quite a few of us noticed that we feel the busiest when we aren't praying or reading our Bibles, or really thinking about God at all. When you're trying to take the weight of the world on yourself you get to be pretty stressed and overwhelmed. When you trust God with it you feel a lot better. Not that there isn't anything to get stressed about then, it's just... different. Some said they feel busy when they don't spend time with God in the morning, but I find I can spend time with Him in the morning and then forget about Him the rest of the day. I have to pray throughout my day to remember His perspective.

So J.T. gave us a few "challenges." One was to keep track of how we spend our time for the next week. Another was to do a "media fast" -- not for the sake of avoiding media in itself, but for time's sake. So stuff like listening to the radio while you're driving is ok (although you could pray instead), or assembling wedding invitations while you watch TV (I wouldn't do this for things I haven't seen, but I would for things I have seen, like the latest episode of Veronica Mars, to pick a random example), because it's not a waste of time. I've decided to accept these two challenges. And I guess I'll keep track of how I'm spending my time next week too, when I'm not on a media fast, because it seems like part of the point is to see how much time you spend on stuff like TV. But for this week I'm fasting from media, and I've decided to include reading blogs and updating my blog among the "media" category, even though it isn't precisely. This is why I won't be updating my blog for another week -- not that this is all that unusual. I guess I'll let you know how it went when I'm back, if there's much to tell.