“I am busy” is a phrase that is understood all too well by college students, myself included.
A couple of weeks ago, my parents were in town visiting me for Junior Parents Weekend. We explored downtown Boston. We traveled through every nook and cranny of Harvard Square. We toured museums, listened to lectures, and ate some pretty good food. While I enjoyed my time with them immensely, I was also a little worried about the week ahead. Midterms, lab work, readings, and meetings all had to fit into four short days, after which I’ll finally reached the freedom of Spring Break. Until that wonderful moment, I was the definition of the word “busy.”
As I was sitting at church last Sunday morning, I was reflecting on a principle that I find pops up fairly often in my life. Being busy usually makes for an excuse to not study the Word, to forget to pray, to rely on myself for strength—all things that, obviously, pull me away from God and His good and perfect will. What I’ve also noticed about myself, though, is that generally I really am not too busy. While I feel like every waking moment from that weekend was spent doing something with my parents, I know that I also spent some time on Facebook. My emails were all read and organized into their respective folders. I even caught up on the news. All of these things, though not bad in and of themselves, are things that should not come before my relationship with God.
When I think back to stories that we read in the gospels and in Acts about the drastic changes that the Disciples made in their lives to follow Christ and to serve Him more fully, I am humbled and embarrassed; what sacrifices have I made in my life? Why can’t I manage to take even 30 minutes out of my day to give to God, when some of them left everything to serve Him? In Matthew 10:38-39, Jesus says, “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” Am I really “losing my life” for Christ when I allow for my own volitions to take precedence over God’s?
1 John 2:17 says, “The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” I don’t know about you, but I would love to live in the presence of the Creator for the rest of forever. I hope that as the world passes away, my lusts go with it. After all, when Christ comes, I know I won’t be too busy for Him then—so why pretend like I am now?