When God Gets a Busy Signal – A Post to Set You Free
My Dad wanted to reach me the other day, so he called. Repeatedly.
I was having a long overdue chat with my best friend on my cell phone. I saw him beep in but I ignored the call. I could speak with him later. The house phone rang and knew it was him. Again, he beeped in my cell – twice.
I’d already seen him that morning. Knew he was fine. He was working on a particular project for my adult son. We live across the street from one another so I saw there was no ambulance in his driveway. I continued my conversation with my friend.
He tried again on the house phone and then the cell. I was winding down my chat when suddenly, I heard his screen door slam and watched his car pull out of his driveway into mine. “I gotta go,” I mumbled to my friend. “He’s actually driven to my house.”
There was nothing wrong with my chatting and nothing wrong with expecting him to wait. Dad wasn’t angry with my not answering. We have a strong relationship and he assumed I had an important call. He just was intent on getting me a piece of information for my son. He knew exactly where to find me just as I usually know exactly where to find him.
I was thinking about that in the past weeks as I’ve endured an unusually busy time for me. For years, I crafted a life that allowed me to be available to God and to others, to be the person who isn’t always busy so I could spend time with God. Spend time with hurting people. Pay attention to my kids.
Now, my kids are grown and the landscape of my life has shifted. I have a full-time day job. I write full-time. (Do the math on that.) I speak to groups. My parents live across the street. My husband is pursuing a dream of renovating a house (while we live inside it) and has hit some speedbumps along the way – one of which is MS. I’m enjoying serving in a local church family. My daughter is weeks away from getting married. There isn’t a surface in my home that isn’t either under construction or covered with wedding gifts, wedding crafts, wedding lists, Hannah’s packed belongings, or writing/speaking materials.
I. am. Busy.
For weeks, I wrestled with an undercurrent of stress I finally identified as fear and guilt. Busyness is a bad thing isn’t it? Busy prevents me from being available to God. God calls us to a simple life and there’s nothing simple happening here. But as I looked over what I’m doing, nothing could give right now. Whatever doesn’t need to be done, I already wasn’t doing.
Plus, I’m not ignoring God. He’s first on my mind when I wake. I pray before my feet hit the floor. Throughout my workday, I listen to the Bible on CD and pray about what I’m hearing.
And, to be sure I don’t lose sight of Him, I take a day off from all work once a week, Saturday evening to Sunday evening. That’s when I go to movies, worship, read a book, walk with my husband, or sit on the porch.
On my day of rest, I am like Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything, “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.”
Still, even with that, I was wrestling with fear. What I wasn’t seeing was that Satan was feeding that fear. Taunting me about being too busy. Whispering that all this busyness would lead to terrible, terrible trouble. Someone would get hurt.
Then, all at once, God reminded me of something this week. I was involved with my day job, making lists for the wedding, and lists for the writing when I heard Him beep in on my mental conversation. Several times, I ignored Him, thinking I’d get to Him later but He had an important piece of information for me so He got right in my face with Romans 8:38-39. “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
That’s when I saw the truth. Nothing can separate me from Jesus – not even busyness.
If there is a time for everything, then there is a time to be busy. I still believe there is too much busyness on the planet and we
should be sure what we’re doing is what we’re called to do. But, there are demanding seasons when what He calls us to do stretches us and requires us to be busy. He. Is. still. With. Us.
Nothing can separate us from Jesus. I pulled out my Bible and read Romans 8 in full. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” leapt out at me. I used it against the voice of Satan and His taunts disappeared.
I’m no longer afraid of the busyness because I know that whenever God wants me to know something, He’s going to break through and tell me. He is for me and because He is for me, who can stand against me? Not even me.
Is this your busy season? If God called you to it, He’ll see you through it. Rest in Him even in the busy season.
When God gets a busy signal – a post to set you free http://t.co/G7L9YZaTlI #amwriting #busydoinglife #faith
— Lori Roeleveld (@lorisroeleveld) October 10, 2015
