Is God busy?
This morning in my reading I came across a line that seems funny to me because it is such an understatement: “Redeeming the world involves much work. God is a busy God.” (David Fleming, SJ) Ya think? I had to laugh. I should say so!
Redeeming the world is the hardest of all work and something only God can do. Funny how often I feel it’s my own job to make everything come out just right – relationships, work projects, budgets, my children, my sermons. These things keep me really busy, sometimes frantically busy. So it’s a little strange for me to think of God being busy. That sounds like a trait of limited human beings who have more on their plates than they can handle. But it’s quite true that God is busy, if the Bible is any indication. God is not passive but active, creative, purposeful. The difference between our busy-ness and God’s is that God can be busy without being frantic. God is perfectly busy and perfectly at peace. God is persistently busy, yet always available to us and attentive to our needs.
Fleming goes on to write “God is a busy God – active, ever-present, prodding, suggesting, inviting. He calls us to share in the work he is doing.”
Seeing our daily efforts in the context of God’s ongoing work is a good way to keep our lives in perspective. We can and should work hard, but at the end of the day we can rest knowing that God will keep things going. It’s good to get tired, participating in God’s redeeming work. Our efforts may seem small and sometimes ineffective, but they are part of a greater work. We are free to work hard, do our part, and trust God to do what we cannot do.
Easier said than done! For me it isn’t necessarily the important work that makes me frantic, it is the (sometimes) overwhelming smaller tasks that pile up into seemingly huge obsticles to doing the important work. I understand trusting God to take care of my worries, comforting my friends and family that need comforting, “trying” to lead me where I should be (not always easy) but who is going to do my chores? God shares in the important work, yes, but that still leaves laundry, grocery shopping, feeding and caring for our families (including our pets) paying bills, taking care of our physical beings AND going to work. So it is a little hard to learn to let go. That is why sitting in Church on Sundays are so restful. It seems that there is the one place that I am able to let God do the rest.
Wow, you named it, Donna! Right now surrounding my ever-slowing laptop, is as pile of “smaller tasks” that I have to get through before I can move on to the things I care about. Was it always this way? When I think of this generation’s fear of commitment, I wonder if we are somehow more overwhelmed with life than folks were a generation or two ago. More paper? More information? More actually to do?
There have been professional articles written on this very topic. From a health standpoint this new generation of sensory overload and multitasking has made people sick. Individuals have sleep problems, are becoming more over weight, have headaches, chronic fatigue, depression, and anxiety. Women seemed to fair more poorly then men because they usually have the additional responsibility of home (shopping, cooking, cleaning) and most child care in addition to jobs. I am sorry I can’t quote the source of this article. This provides little time to “Be still and know God”. Ironically the more still I become the better my spiritual connection and the more centered I feel. I think that is when I am actually most productive. It is a very conscious effort and I struggle with it everyday.
Sensory overload is quite an issue. Dale Allison identifies the problem of visual overload in his book Luminous Dusk, and also of the problem of noise in the chapter called “Mute Angels.” Frankly, that makes me wonder about blogging…..is it just one more invitation to live in Screenworld? On the other hand, I’m having great conversations here that people don’t seem to have time for if it means coming to a class. Hmmm…
As Rick Warren wrote in his recent book, “It’s not about you.” Rick’s point being that our focus should be directed more to God, and less to ourselves and our own activities.
I began my business career with a very large business organization that had a one word motto for its employees and customers – that word was “Think.” I have found that taking the time to read, study, and reflect every day provides a basis for a more rewarding Christian walk and understanding of the world in which we travel.