WHO'S KEEPING US BUSY?

This week's blog comes a bit later than usual.  Undoubtedly I was caught with a lot of things to do and just didn't find the time to write. True, but a writer worth his salt should never lose out on his deadline. This single word, "busy", though tends to be a relative fixture in my vocabulary.  More often than not I am really “busy”.

I often tell myself how busy I am, that I can’t cope because I’m too busy….I think many of you know what I am talking about, it seems to be the story of our lives.  So many people I know seem to say these same words to me too about themselves.  We are, thankfully, a busy people, because God does really provide for His children, but I have slowly come to realise that my busyness can be a blockage as well as a benefit.

I remember once being told what busy means.  It stands for Being Under Satan’s Yoke.  At the time I heard it I laughed it off as something funny, but over the years I have come to realise the truth of it all.  Satan does really try to keep us busy at doing things, good things as well, such as caring for the family, clearing up, serving, seeing to clients, professionally doing our job to exacting standards….because what he’s after really is making us forget God’s presence in our lives through the work load that God (and Satan) have provided for us.  In this way we get so engrossed in our work that we forget about God, about what He wants of us, perhaps even forgetting to make time for mass or something or other that is God-filled. 

When I stopped to think about this, I realised how true it was to my life.  I realised how much I yearned for the quiet moments to perhaps be alone with God in the quiet of myself. But when these moments came, they tended to fade away because being over busy would have also led me to being tired and often I would find that all I’ll want to do is slump into a comfortable armchair for a nap instead of picking up the Bible or some spiritual book.  

Does that sound all too familiar to you too?  But I was also to soon realise that God does not give up so easily and He could also be keeping me busy. Yet this time for another reason, that’s to keep me away from serious sin.  Many times one tends to sin when one is not focussed properly on God in his/her day.  That’s when we lower our guard and Satan can spring his trap by suggesting something that could eventually lead us to fall.  Yet by keeping us busy with doing the good, everyday, work things, not necessarily the spiritual ones, God can actually reduce our downtime and therefore Satan finds us too busy to consider his prodding.  The reasoning could be that we’ll be too busy with God's doing to bother about Satan!   Hmmm…interesting thought; don't you think?