Busyness. It completely baffles me how relatable that word seems to be amongst everyone I know right now. From my middle school students to my grandfather, the number of times I have heard the response “I’m just exhausted.” to the question “How are you?” is incalculable. After a whole year and a half of lockdown with the idea of “normal life” being inaccessible, I can’t say I’m surprised to have found all of us living in this new reality. Though COVID-19 is far from over, it is exciting to have glimpses of what life used to be like and everything it offered.
Of course, with all of these opportunities that are increasingly available for us all, it can be difficult to learn how to balance everything at once. I believe that we’ve found ourselves in a time of overcommitment. This is especially true within our Arborlawn Student Ministry. Homework, band practice, sports games, homecomings, and theatre are just a few of the many places our students have expressed a feeling of overcommitment to. A common question I’ve heard from many of them is, “How do I balance all of this?”
I find myself asking the same question between my time working as a barista at Starbucks, leading worship for UTA’s Wesley Foundation, and serving our students here at Arborlawn. With so much on all of our plates, it can feel like we’re trying to sprint through a marathon race. We’re all trying to chase after what we missed during the first 18 months of the pandemic, which leaves us feeling more empty and exhausted than ever. This reminds me of a quote I read in a book called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by Pastor John Mark Comer.
“Ultimately, nothing in this life, apart from God, can satisfy our desires. Tragically, we continue to chase after our desires ad infinitum. The result? A chronic state of restlessness or, worse, angst, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, depression—all of which lead to a life of hurry, a life of busyness, overload, shopping, materialism, careerism, a life of more…which in turn makes us even more restless. And the cycle spirals out of control.”
― John Mark Comer, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World
The answer I’ve found to that question so many of my students are asking is a simple one for me. We need to prioritize better. Not only our earthly priorities but the ones that lead us closer to God. For me, that means staying more intentional about spending time in solitude, fasting, and diving into scripture. Jesus constantly models this intentionality in scripture through his spiritual practices, and it is when I am active in opportunities like these, my personal spiritual practices, that I feel fulfilled and joyous. If we lose sight of these things, we find ourselves impatient, quicker to anger, overall dragged further away from God. I think John Mark’s quote is exactly where we’ve found ourselves now, and to combat it, we need to devote more of our time to God, because He is the one that will ultimately satisfy our desires.
Written By: Desi Griffin