We all live busy lives.
And we always hear about how bad it is to be busy. It’s bad for our health. It’s bad for our relationships. It’s bad for our souls. Especially when the busyness comes from seemingly meaningless activity, the tyranny of the urgent.
Or worse, when we stay busy to hide from something we need to face, to distract ourselves from something we need to see, to numb a wound that needs to be healed.
But can I tell you something? (Of course I can. It’s my blog.)
I like being busy.
I like when my days are full and fast paced. I like interacting with lots of people. I like covering a lot of ground, checking things off my list, taking care of business. There’s a way to do busy well and sometimes I think I can actually pull it off. And I like it. With me, energy begets energy.
I love to rest too, but I don’t do that nearly as well.
We’re often told to slow down but we’re not really told what that’s supposed to look like. I think resting the wrong way can be just as harmful as incessant busyness. If I end up with an open afternoon or a free weekend, I can quickly turn into what the Staton family calls a ‘blivit.’
(I wasn’t completely sure it was a real word, but I did find it on dictionary.com. The definition is ‘something ridiculous, annoying or useless.’ In this case, emphasis on the world useless.)
Brad and I have perfected the art of blivitting together. (I’m CERTAIN that this isn’t a real verb, but just go with it.) When the kids are gone every other weekend, we can park ourselves on the sectional in our upstairs sitting area and not move for an entire day, except to go to the bathroom, get a drink out of the fridge or let the pizza guy in.
Now the importance of a good afternoon nap cannot be overstated. But if my down time is otherwise filled with puttering around on social media, watching worthless TV or playing Mario Kart for hours, I can’t really justify slowing my pace.
When it comes to the health of our minds and souls, I don’t think it’s a matter of busy versus rest (although pursuing that balance is vitally important). Busy is not always bad and rest is not always good.
I think a more accurate dichotomy is intentional versus mindless, proactive versus reactive. Is my life happening to me? Or am I happening to my life?
I was recently reminded of an oft-forgotten critical ingredient to my mental, emotional and spiritual health: The discipline of inspiration.
Sounds like contradiction of terms, right? Inspiration is spontaneous, catches you off guard. You can’t just muster it up.
No, you can’t muster it up. But you can sure as heck chase it down.
Maybe other people don’t need it as much as I do. But I’m not exaggerating when I say ‘need.’ If I don’t intentionally and daily pursue inspiration, my heart can dry up faster than I care to admit. I’m just an inspirationally needy person, and there’s no need to pretend otherwise.
I get regular reminders of that too.
Every weekday morning for the past couple of years, I’ve spent the first hour of my day reading the Bible, praying and writing, and that ritual has served me well. No matter what is happening in my life, what lay ahead of me that day, how little sleep I got the night before, it has always happened.
It’s not a magical formula, by any means. Sometimes the scripture I come to on a particular day doesn’t necessarily strike a nerve. Sometimes the prayers are forced out through gritted teeth and I lean heavily on the groans of the Holy Spirit to pray for me. And sometimes my fingers type strings of pedantic clichés that I end up deleting later.
But every morning, I knew the Word was going in, the worship was coming out and my writing would flow from that.
Then summer happened.
I was still waking up at the same time for a few weeks, but instead of picking up my rosary (just something to hold when I pray) or opening my Bible, I went straight to my laptop and started pounding away. Not even writing. Working.
And THEN I started getting used to working from home (on most days). There was no deadline to be up and dressed and out the door looking presentable. I realized that my time of reading the Bible, praying and writing could really happen just whenever I had an opening between coaching clients.
And to my dismay, I’ve found that, like exercising, if I don’t have a standing, scheduled time to do it, it just doesn’t happen. And first thing in the morning is my best bet.
My beloved routine that I used to swear by is now sporadic and annoyingly optional. Not. Good.
I once heard Shauna Niequest say that she considered staying inspired part of her job description as a writer. She’s also a wife, a mother to two little boys and has a thriving ministry as a speaker. (Not to mention the bestsellers she cranks out every couple of years.)
But I don’t think only bestselling authors and speakers need to be so intentional. I might take her idea a little farther. Staying inspired should be part of ALL of our job descriptions: employees, volunteers, spouses, parents, friends, siblings, children. All of those we work for/with and serve and love need us to be inspired.
You can do busy well, you know. Busy doesn’t always have to be zooming from thing to thing, inwardly cussing at the car in front of you for going too slow*, running late, overcommitted, sleep deprived and stressed. Busy can be done purposefully and inspired.
[*Side note funny story: I was doing THAT the other day (doing busy uninspired) and was barking at the car in front of me. Caroline, without blinking said, “You can say a bad word, if you need to. I’ll cover my ears.” Yep, that’s real. God bless that kid. And no, I didn’t take her up on her offer.]
So how does that go?
I would say the most important thing you can do is to take back the first few minutes of your day. Spend five, ten, fifteen minutes in the Bible. When you first wake up, your heart and mind are soft, squishy and open. Fill them with truth before anything else creeps in. It’s a game changer.
Then throughout the day, chase inspiration. The music you listen to, words you read, company you keep, activities you participate in, conversations you have. Some people you’re around during the day have great laughs. Others have remarkable eyes or boundless energy. Notice and draw inspiration from beauty.
Rest can be done well too (from what I hear). Mindless entertainment doesn’t hurt anything on occasion, but is that rest time leaving you recharged? Or just more of a blivit?
When you rest, there are enlightening books to read, encouraging movies and documentaries to watch, challenging podcasts to listen to from the comfort of the couch. Or go all out and indulge in a power nap to recharge your battery. (My favorite.)
Jesus knew His time on earth was short and He had much to accomplish while He was here. Before He died for us, He had to show us how to live, for heaven’s sake. I think it’s safe to say that every single moment was intentional.
He wasn’t reactive, He wasn’t grinding it out, He wasn’t collapsing in exhaustion. He deliberately chose when to work, when to rest, when to minister, when to connect, when to withdraw. On the days He pushed through weariness, it was done with careful consideration and surrender to His Father’s will.
Life didn’t just happen to Jesus. Jesus happened to life. (He still is, actually.)
Busy inspired. Rest with purpose. No moment wasted.
We don’t have time to just endlessly blivit. And we don’t have time to do be busy without inspiration either. We must run and rest on purpose and with intention.
Part of our job descriptions as Christians is to stay inspired. How else can we show the rest of the world the infinite love, beauty, peace, power and grace of our God?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. (Colossians 3:23)
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
Whatever we do, whether we’re busy or resting, whether we’re working or playing, let’s do it to God’s glory.
And let’s do it inspired.
