“Busy“
By Fr. Isaiah Schick
One of the most common words I hear people use to describe their lives, the lives of others, or the world around them in general is “busy.” “Father, I don’t want to bother you because I know you’re busy.” “Everyone is busy all the time!” “It is a busy time of year.” “I would love to, but I can’t – I just can’t find time in my busy schedule.” I think it might be a good time to hit the pause button and ask: What does the word ‘busy’ mean?
One possible definition is “occupied with or concentrating on a particular activity or object of attention.” Fair enough! However, often I think that this word is thrown around as an excuse. Sometimes it is an excuse to not ask others for help when we need it. Sometimes it is an excuse to not reach out to someone else who might need a real person-to-person moment. At other times, it is an excuse to decline an invitation to get involved in something else – who can even add one more thing to an already busy schedule?? I am not saying that declining an invitation is inherently bad – but it is important to not use easy excuses to do it. Sometimes invitations are neutral and simply human. However, we often forget that God LOVES to make invitations to us, and sometimes the Holy Spirit will invite us to something through other people.
That is why the word “busy” is a dangerous excuse.
It allows us to decline without even considering something or praying about it – we may find in the midst of our “busyness” that we actually become the one thing we dread being: lazy or slothful. Most people would define laziness as not doing anything, but the deadly sin of sloth is actually a type of laziness that comes from carelessness about the commands and priorities of God, a lack of love for God and his ways that undermine our vocation, our calling. This can be doing nothing, but it can also involve doing too many things that are not the will of God for our life so that we can decline God’s invitation because our schedule is too full. What if God decides to invite you to something that will give you great joy and will use the gifts he gave you more fruitfully for his glory and the salvation of souls than you could ever imagine? What if you say no because you are afraid to give something else up? “I have prayed about it, and I think God is calling me to something else” is a much better response to decline an invitation to get involved in something than the excuse of “I am too busy.” We are ALL busy – but back to the definition of ‘busy’: Am I “occupied with or concentrating on” what MY plan for my life is? Or am I occupied with my vocation and the things for which God has created me – with GOD’S plan for my life?