If you ask 100 people how they’re doing, my guess is that 85 of them will answer with some version of “busy.” Despite all the technological advances that were supposed to make our lives easier, it seems that we still live very hurried lives. People complain about not having enough time in the day, and it seems to do little to assuage our concerns when we realize we have just as much time as Edison, Mozart, and Einstein. We are rushed people and between work, home, church, family and friends, it seems our to-do list grows longer, despite our constant commitment to cross things off of them.
The challenge for the Christian, however, is to recognize that this busyness does not excuse us from our commitment to reflect Christ. I’ve found myself neglecting to chat with someone because I’m so concerned with getting to the place I want to be. I’ve stopped from asking how someone is because I think I don’t have time to hear the answer.
And yet, I’m reminded that when I get to heaven, God’s to-do list for me is probably not going to have most of the things that are on mine. He’ll be looking for how often I stopped to show someone His love, instead of how often I got the grocery shopping done before 5. He will want to know when I was His hands and feet, not if I went to the gym to get my legs and arms in pristine shape. And it’s in recognizing these things that I realize I need to be willing to take a time out from what I’m doing, to be a part of an unexpected opportunity to be part of His agenda, and in doing so, the realities of how significant His plans are, will rightly show how small my to-do list is.
