How has your life changed since the COVID-19 pandemic began? Throughout this pandemic, I have kept my normal hours at work (thank God), though my duties look a little different than they used to. My college classes were already all online, so there was no transition for me to struggle through. I stopped going to church in person. My vacation was cancelled. My women’s conference was postponed. I couldn’t go to Disney World on the weekends. For me, things have been okay, but they’ve been different.
One day, though (hopefully soon), things will eventually return back to normal. Restaurants, stores, and businesses will reopen. We’ll be able to go to work, and our kids will be able to go to school. We’ll be able to travel again and go on vacations. And we’ll get back to our normal, busy selves.
But do we really want to return to that crazy busyness? Where we’re working overtime and it seems like we can never pull our eyes away from our screens. Where we’re driving our kids around to soccer games, and piano practices, and dance classes, and after-school clubs. Where we have so many things going on that we can barely keep our heads above water and our important relationships are oftentimes neglected. If we’re not careful, we’ll once again be consumed by our busyness. How do we fight against it?
This is the issue Kevin DeYoung addresses in his book Crazy Busy. Through his own struggles with busyness, Kevin lays out three dangers to avoid in busyness and seven diagnoses of how our busyness becomes such a burden in our lives. Our busyness can be rooted in pride or lack of priorities. It can come from putting too many things on our plates or from not making time to rest. And it can completely ruin our joy and rob our hearts. While busyness is not necessarily a sin, it can become one if we’re putting our crazy busy schedules before our relationship with God. Kevin writes-
“The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth and indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our own finitude, and trust in the providence of God.”[1]
You can’t do it all, and you’re not expected to. It’s okay and even good to be busy, but you must always make sure that your number one priority is spending time with God through prayer and studying His Word. Crazy Busy is a (mercifully) short book, and it’s a practical and easy read, sprinkled with humor and wit. While you may not feel super busy now, there will likely come a time when you will be busy again. I recommend reading this book while you’re still staying at home, so that you’re prepared for your crazy busy life to return.
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[1] Kevin DeYoung, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem (Wheaton: Crossway, 2013), 102.
