Too Busy?

December 17

Busy, busy, busy, busy!!!! We have so many things to do. We have so many places to go. We have so much responsibility that we wonder at times if we shall ever be able to manage all that we have taken upon ourselves. Sometimes, we allow ourselves to be imposed upon by other people. Sometimes our hyper activity reflects our own choices—our own compulsion to maintain a frenetic pace.

The Word of God tells us that we are indeed to do everything with which we are charged as though we were doing it for the Lord. In Colossians 3:23, Paul is quite emphatic that we are not to give short shrift to any task to which we have committed ourselves. The question then becomes, to what tasks should we commit ourselves?

We have great responsibilities. We have families to support and jobs to perform and careers to manage. We have relationships that require the investment of not only our time but our heart. We cannot neglect the people within the sphere of our influence who are depending upon us. In I Timothy 5:8 it is stated quite clearly, “He who neglects his own is worse than an infidel.”

Yet there is but one task with which the Word charges us and that is found in Mark 12:30. Here Jesus says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind and all your strength.” He knows if we do that, we will not neglect to hear Him guide us into other areas of responsibility to which He desires that we go, nor will we neglect those precious people to whom we owe due diligence in living God’s truth before them.

Verse 31 goes on to state that clearly, “…and love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater command than this” In Luke 10: 25-37, Jesus, when asked, “Who is my neighbor?” responds by telling the story of the traveler who was beaten and robbed along the side of a road.

A religious man walked right past him without offering help, as did another ‘devout’ individual. Then a despised Samaritan approached. This individual stopped, cleaned the victim’s wounds, placed him on his own donkey and took him to an inn where he paid for his care.

Jesus made it clear that the ‘neighbor’ was the man who extended help in the time of need. He made it clear that this is God’s expectation of us. When we become a true, loving neighbor to the needy among us, we are extending the Lord’s hand of love to them. We are allowing our lives to become “living epistles, read of all men,” II Corinthians 3:2.

When we’re truly surrendered to the Christ we profess to love, we won’t be too busy to extend Him to those around us. We won’t be too busy to love as He loves.