The Challenge of Busyness

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This hits on the point I wanted to talk about this week, which is how the typical American Christian guy is one of the busiest creatures on the planet. One of the things that struck me as I was talking to the men from Iron Sharpens Iron a few weeks ago was how challenging it is to get men involved in life of the church. Most pastors find it downright discouraging how few men they can get to volunteer, join a small group or even come to events.

Part of the problem is a spiritual one; the lack of good male leadership in this country is something we all can agree on. But one of the things that those in men's ministry have realized is that many Christian men would love to be involved in more things in the life of their churches—they just don't have the time. Iron Sharpens Iron director Brian Doyle said that getting a man to come to a one-day conference is a huge thing to ask. In order to do it, he said, you have to convince him that attending is worth his one Saturday of the week—a Saturday when he could be spending time with his wife, playing with his kids, getting household duties done, relaxing or taking care of people who rely on him, such as elderly parents.

It's amazing how busy most of us are. If we want to do something, usually we have to check three different schedules as well as ask our wives before we can be sure it's possible. This is the same reason that men's small groups tend to happen at ridiculously early hours of the morning. It's the only time in the day we've got!

This is one of the toughest battles we can face because there are so many legitimate pulls on our time. As men of God, we should be responsible, work our jobs and handle our responsibilities around the home. We need to be investing in our marriages—spending quality time with our wives to keep the relationship growing. Those with kids at home know that children require more time than anything else yet are more important than anything else that demands our time. Add to this the time we should be spending with God, and all of it combined can drive a man crazy. Trying to take one more responsibility at church can feel like promising time that doesn't even exist. There's really no easy solution to this, other than the fact that we do need to prioritize our lives.

If you know you are terminally busy, make sure that you are busy for the right reasons. Do you really need to be spending that extra half hour at work? How important is time in front of the TV? What would happen if you woke up a half an hour earlier? As long as we are recognizing this problem and making conscious decisions about how to spend our days, we can overcome it. If you just do whatever comes up and don't prioritize, your time will be eaten away.