So how busy are you?

Posted by Jarrod | Filed under Ministry, Thoughts

Chinese Pictograph

As seen above, the Chinese Pictograph for busy = “Heart & “death.”

Christmas is a season of busyness (parties, buying gifts, preparing for guests, cooking feasts). Life in general is busy. Think of how many times you’ve said, or tweeted, or FB’ed, “I’m so busy!” What a picture of what busyness, hurriedness, and drivenness does to us. It wounds, bleeds, kills the heart.

For many of us, busyness and hurriedness is the norm of life. It’s so normal in fact that if you aren’t feeling stressed, or worried, or busy, or hurried, then you feel something is not right in the world. How dare you live in calm and peace? So then you try to find something, or remind yourself of something, to stress about.

I get enslaved to “busy.” The symptom of busy is “hurry.” I feel like I’m always in a hurry. Brush my teeth in a hurry. Kiss my kids in a hurry. Exercise in a hurry. Drink coffee in a hurry. Pet my chihuahua in a hurry.

According to author Mark Buchanan, there are two greek terms for time. “Chronos” & “Kairos”. Most of us live our lives according to “chronos.” Chronos is where we get our words chronic, chronicle, chronology. These words imply a forced forward motion. There’s no stopping, no slowing down, no flexibility. 8:00am work is coming. The 3:00pm deadline is coming. The project due before Christmas eve is lurking. The 6:00pm guests are on their way. No stopping it, no slowing down it down to give you more time, and it basically controls you. We’re at “chronos’” mercy. “Chronos” speaks to our wrist-watches and calendars.

“Chronos” was actually a deity/god worshipped by the greeks. It was a vicious god. A cannibal that devoured its own children. Always devouring, never satisfied.

“Kairos” on the other hand was a word that was associated with Jesus. It was time viewed as a gift, pregnant w/ opportunity and purpose.

Mark 1:14-15: Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time [Kairos] is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent, and believe the gospel.”

You can’t do anything about the forward march of time. But by God’s grace, and through learning of Rabbi/Lord Jesus, you can “redeem the time.” You can live in the present, fully awake, attentive, noticing the “gifts” (from a baby’s giggle to the fall of a snowflake) around you, watching for opportunities to bless someone, trusting God with interruptions (that He’s sovereign over them) and believing God has a purpose in them.

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Tags: busy, calendars, Chinese, heart, pictograph, time

Permalink | December 18th, 2009

One Response to “So how busy are you?”

mattie adderhold Says:
December 20th, 2009 at 9:23 am
hey J.J. how’s the snow? i wish it would have snowed when we were there! i love you and wish i would see you later.:)-mattie