Too busy for God

Even Pastors get too busy!

Its easy for Pastors to get busy.  Its easy for us to fill up our schedules and justify all of it as ministry.  There is so much need.  There is so many things to be done to fill that need.  So I can pack each day full, and then draw up a theology to justify why every single thing had to be in that list.  The only problem is, will I even have time to do that?  You know your schedule is getting a little too full when you find yourself having to justify the inclusion of everything to yourself or to others.

A great way to regulate yourself is to consider your calling.  Every person has a calling and a purpose to fulfill.  Even you.  I tell the seniors that I minister to at the Assisted Living center that “Where there is life there is purpose.”  If God has kept you alive, then he still has a role for you.  And the same is true for all of you who are able to read this right now.  Serving God is not something you get a degree to get.  God has wired you for serving, and when you turn to Christ for your salvation, He gives you His Holy Spirit to empower and guide you into effective and powerful service for Him.

So as you consider your schedule and what you include in it, you can find lots of reasons to justify all that “BUSYness.”  But does it really fit what God has made you to do?  Its time to start comparing the calling to what you are doing.

As I consider my call, I think about the fact that my specific call is to “present every person complete in Christ (Col 1:28).”  I do by “proclaiming him and teaching,” as he writes in v. 29.  This is a specific functionality that God has given me in order to be able to impact the body of Christ.  We all have a specific functionality that is to be expressed in the context of a church family (1 Corinthians 12).  I also consider the fact that there is a general call to meet needs in the lives of others (Luke 10:29-37). So, there come times when I feel a bit “too busy,” and need to begin to sort through some things in light of my call.  I also have a specific calling as a Father and a Husband, as an accountability partner, and a general calling to share Christ with others who don’t know him.  I need to sort things in light of these callings. 

You have callings as well!  How often do you take time to sort through the BUSYness of life and see how everything compares to what God has made you for?  Have you taken time to discover the specific calls God has given you?  Have you been justifying not serving through the church because of all the things life has you entangled with outside of it?  Remember, those things will perish!

So I am going to “clean house” in my schedule to make myself more effective.  You have to trim the vines sometimes to get more grapes!  And God wants us to be fruitful for Him.