Chisel Day 12: Mind your own...

​God:  “You’re lazy…but you pretend to look busy…”

Okayyyy God.  Ouch!  Watching the video this morning and it didn’t just step on my toes,  it punched me in the gut.   Then, I laughed as I reflected on the childishness of this concept in our lives.  Remember back to your school days when the class would be in disarray, then someone shouted “the teacher is coming!”  Everyone would grab their pencils, look down at their books and pretend to be busy.  I remember at my first secular that when the owner would come, he had a tendency to check the craziest places for dust.  And when he surely found it,  if you weren’t busy before…you were now! 

Maybe it is because of scenarios like those that we have elevated, exalted, and worshipped the concept of “busyness.”  When we ask someone about their week, more times than not,  we receive answers similar to, “its been so busy!”  In the American Church culture, we applaud busyness.  But is busyness really best?

In Mark 6:31,  we find that people have been coming and going so steadily that the disciples hadn’t even had time to eat.  Jesus gives them some instruction that would sound unusual to you and I.  Come into a quiet place and rest.  Psalm 46 instructs us to be still and know that He is God.  And since the creation of the world,  the 10 commandments, on into today – the principle of the Sabbath is mandatory to a successful Christian’s life.  Personally,  I take Monday as my Sabbath.  I don’t do any work relating to my field of ministry.  I don’t often answer the phone.  And I don’t check my email.  In fact, when I sin against my Sabbath, I find my entire week thrown into a tizzy of busyness rather than the Lord’s business. 

Some mock the idea rest, and worship activity over productivity.  But what you’ll find in Scripture on into secular psychological studies is that when we fail to rest.  When we focus more on staying busy than we do staying focused,  we become busybodies.  Lazy people who pretend to look busy.  2 Thessalonians 3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.  In other words,  there are some people causing problems among the people (walk among you disorderly), not pursuing biblical priorities or corporate vision (working not at all), but seem to be super busy because they say that they are, and you always seem to be hearing their name or seeing their face in an unpleasant way (but are busybodies.)

My pastor gave me this list of 15 ways to spot a busybody that he recently preached through:

1.  They love to make others business, their business.
2.  They hide their motives behind a false calling.
3.  They always involve themselves in things they are not qualified to fix.
4.  They care more about feeling needed than they do meeting needs.
5.  They are abrasively opinionated, even when they are not asked.
6.  They use social media as “binoculars” to “spy on the neighbors.”
7.  They dominate conversations in order to control the narrative.
8.  They are offended when their advice is not needed or heeded.
9.  They are fueled by gossip but use phrases like “prayer request” and “important information” to cover their addiction.
10.  They have no trouble lying in order to get out of what they created.
11.  They say made up things like “they said” or “people have come to me.”
12.  They have an uncanny ability to recognize weak people but avoid authority figures.
13.  They constantly defend themselves.
14.  They have an agenda to destroy people.
15.  They are mad right now and think I’m talking to them.

Our prayer today:

God, help me be busy about YOUR business and realize that my neighbor’s business is none of my business.  Lord,  I realize that if I’m pursuing the principles of scripture and passionately serving the church I won’t become a busybody.