with Cecil May
Thank you for gathering to worship our Lord, church! We have hit what may be the busiest six-week period in America: Thanksgiving to Christmas. It can be a very fun kind of busy. We see a lot of family, decorate, tear down decorations and put up new ones, shop, cook, eat what we have cooked, and travel. Still, you have made worship a priority. We could call that commendable, but Christians coming together on the first day of the week is simply natural. This we do, even though we are busy.
When I go into a business that is not busy, I get a little nervous for them. It is a good thing for a business to be busy. Likewise, I get nervous for a church that does not appear to be busy. Church is an entity in which to “strive and toil” (1 Tim. 4:10), not a place to “sit and trifle.” Let us be happily busy about our Father’s business. Busy is good.
Busy can also be bad. Busy is bad when people wear it as a badge. I notice media ads target those who are “busy, busy, busy!” as one ad puts it. Busy is a cultural statement. In some circles, if your life is not overwhelmingly over-scheduled you are not doing it right. People fill up their day planners with activity upon activity. They draw self-worth from the fact of their busyness, whether those activities are beneficial or not.
Busy is bad when we are busy about the wrong things. Psalm 141:4 mentions that we may “busy ourselves with wicked deeds.” The fool is “busy with iniquity,’ Isaiah 32:6.
Busy is bad when it is camouflaging idleness with meddling. “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.” 2 Thess. 3:11.
Be busy, but be busy unto the Lord. Or, if you are still, be still unto the Lord.
Let us be busy in prayer for our deacon selection process. Remember our brothers and sisters who grieve. A holiday season can be especially difficult in circumstances of loss.
Love one another! That will keep us busy.