Quit being so busy!

These last couple of weeks have been crazy busy full of...well, crazy busyness. 

And it's just not worth it! 

Life is too short, and there's too much to do to have so much to do, you know? All of my volunteering is great, but that on top of double portions of school, and still wanting to see my husband and the occasional friend, is just a lot. (Not to mention, I would like to write from time to time!) Even making sure I dedicate a solid portion of time to God each morning has been becoming a chore of sorts, and that's never OK. 

Like...ever. 

Today, after my hubby woke up with a fever (Calling him healed, in Jesus' name!), I decided to stay home from school myself to finish some late homework (that I didn't even fully complete...blah!) and take care of him. But I also wanted to just kind of...rest. A good friend of mine asked why we weren't at school, and when I told her Brent was sick and I was catching up because we were so busy, she lovingly called me out, reminding me that "opportunity is not obligation" and warning that with all we're doing, "if it doesn't eventually thin out, you'll burn out."

So true! I decided it was probably time to drop a bit of my volunteering (at least one out of four things), and just spend some time getting my home life and personal life organized...because both have been all over the place as of late! Not in any bad way particularly, but it's just been too busy!

Ain't that the truth! Why be so busy all the time, anyway? This life we live is for one purpose: LOVE. We are to love God, and love people...and love those people into the Kingdom, if they aren't already! Brent and I have never wanted a busy life, because we want to be free to serve God wholeheartedly and to serve people. It doesn't mean we won't have jobs or won't take care of ourselves or have fun. It doesn't mean we won't run errands, have places to go and people to see, and it doesn't mean we won't ever be in a hurry or get stressed out about this, that or the other. But we can do those things with JOY...and we can do those things in LOVE...and we can do things PEACEFULLY. (Yes! You can have a healthy stress level and still be at peace, because Peace Himself lives inside of you!)

Yesterday in class, one of my teachers shared this beautiful nugget of truth that was a total revelation to me, and yet it seemed so simple: anything that frustrates, irritates or annoys you is SELFISH. And it is. Unless it's a frustration with the enemy and the forces of darkness, you're only frustrated, irritated or annoyed because it interrupts YOUR plan, YOUR life, YOUR way of doing things, and so forth and so on. 

It is not about you. And it's not about me. It's about HIM, and it's about them: a lost and dying world that's going to hell if we as the Church don't up our game in the love department. 

And how can we even begin to better walk in love if we're so wrapped up in our own little busy lives? If we're always wrapped up in us, and what we're doing, what we have to do, what we're going through and what we have or what we need, at the end of the day, we're going to be inwardly focused and outwardly useless. Why? Because with that kind of thinking, we're bound to end up unnecessarily stressed about everything...because we think everything's about us.

But having said all of that, that doesn't mean we don't need to take time for ourselves. 

"It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, 

eating the bread of anxious toil; 

for He gives to His beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2

And let's not forget that God Himself took a rest after creating the entirety of the universe, and He instructed us to take a day of rest ourselves.

I need to refocus some of my energy and get some things on track (homework schedule, exercising regularly, planning healthy meals, being a good steward of our home, budgeting, and so forth...I even hate to admit it, but even regular time spent with God!) because the last couple months, we've [I've] let those things slip a bit...and when those things slip, it starts to affect other things too. I can't help others if I can't take care of myself. That's what that day of rest is for! 

And every so often, we may needs a few of those days in a row.