Make Time for the Important

你忙不忙? (Ni Mang Bu Mang?)

A common question when I was in China was, “Are you busy?”. People wanted you to answer, “busy,” because it meant you were being productive.

This is a common desire for people is to appear productive. At work, if you are busy, your boss is happy because it gives the impression that things are getting done. You could be running in and out of meetings all day getting absolutely no work done, but the fact you have things on your calendar and looking busy, people are happy.

We do this with our lives as well. We will put our kids in every possible activity and then have to run them all over town. Most meals are on the run and very little family time is actually taking place. But, we are fine with this because if someone asks us how we are doing, we can answer, “busy.”

Making a Mark for Christ

I was thinking of this because of the recent death of Billy Graham. He led massive crusades over the globe, meet with world leaders, and impacted thousands of people for Christ. Even though he was highly productive, he was quoted as saying:

“If I had it to do over again, I’d spend more time in meditation and prayer and telling the Lord how much I love him and adore him and looking forward to the time we are going to spend together for eternity.”

Meditation and prayer don’t feel like productive activities. In fact, most of us struggle to find time to spend just a few minutes in prayer. God wants to walk with us through this life, but we need to turn our attention to Him to take advantage of His incredible proposal.

Was Jesus Busy?

When we look at Jesus, He accomplished so much. Yet, He seemed to always find time to get away to pray. Sometimes at the consternation of His disciples.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” – Mark 1:35-37

The point the disciples seem to want to get across is that if people want you, you shouldn’t be off by yourself. That is not a good use of your time.

Think about when the disciples were crossing the lake and a fierce storm came in. They began to worry for their lives and got mad that Jesus was asleep (Mark 4:35-39). “Don’t you care!,” they asked Him. Busy people think if you are not busy then you don’t care.

That is not how Jesus thinks. He looked at their worry and busyness and asked if they had faith (Mark 4:40).

Questions to Make Time for the Important

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Do I feel that I am more productive being busy or spending time with God?
• Do I have more faith in my abilities to accomplish things than in God’s?
• Is God even important to me?

I am not saying that God is so fascinated with having a few minutes of your morning that He doesn’t care about other things. But, I do feel separating a special time with Him will help you connect with Him throughout the whole day. If you haven’t done it yet, today, go take some time away from what you are doing and talk to Jesus, who died to spend time with you.