Freedom, Time, Busy

“If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy”

 I was excited to see Nick Watney take home the victory this weekend at the Barclays PGA tour stop in New York. He is a native of central California and was a customer of mine when he attended California State University Fresno. I live in a community where it seems everyone knows somebody, so one of my friends knew Nick and sent him to me to get some car stereo work done on his Honda.

I imagine since he is not in College anymore and is now a PGA star, his car is a little nicer. I would like to see him win the Fed Ex cup title this year. Not just because I have met him, but Nick is actually a good person. If the rumors are true about his character, he will do the right thing not only with the money, but with his career. I’ve been told by his friends that he makes time to spend with his family in friends despite his busy schedule. As a top ranked professional, he has a very busy schedule. How about you, is your schedule so busy that it gets in the way of important relationships?

I work in a business that puts relationships first. Now I am certainly not perfect at relationships, but I continue to learn how to cultivate and depend on relationships. I have a lot of friends that are so busy, we rarely see each other because they have gotten so busy. Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand, but it is damaging to our future culture. Our kids are becoming used to a culture of busyness, so guess what that means? They become less engaged with others to the point of loosing communication skills. I see it in our high school students. Just go to a mall or a Starbucks. You will see young people texting to other friends at the same time they are with other friends, while not engaging with the ones they are with. I think it’s strange, how about you?

Unfortunately the busier we get the less time we will find for our family connections and worse our connection with Jesus. There were many men and woman in the bible that stand out to us, David, Moses, Joseph, Paul and of course Jesus and many others that were what we would call “A type” or driven personalities. These people were busy, they were always going. When I think of a driven person in the bible, I always think of Paul. I believe if he was around today, he would be in a few different cities a week, teaching, leading and probably would have a radio talk show and a TV program. All while putting important relationships in the mix.

I believe one of the biggest problem today that sets us apart from our relationship with God is being too busy. As I read in the book of Psalms this weekend, it reminded me of what David would do when he became too busy. At the end of some of the verses you will notice the word “Selah”. In the Hebrew language this word can be a little difficult to translate, but in the context of the book of Psalms, it can be a break in the music, or is mostly understood to say to the reader, “Stop and Listen”. How many times can you honestly say that you “Stop and Listen”? I imagine the only way the Apostle Paul could slow down was when he finally was put in prison and had no choice. And maybe the story of Joseph would not be the same if he had not been slowed down with his time in prison. Both of these men were put in prison and it helped to forge them into the person they became.

Now, I wouldn’t say for us to go to prison to get time with God, in order for you to slow down to “Stop and Listen”, but we will need to do something extreme sometimes to change our lifestyle in order to hear from the creator of the universe. This famous verse says it for us, Psalms 46:10 Be still and know that I am God…” One of the least used spiritual disciplines and most important is to “Stop and Listen”

If you are so busy that you cannot take time out of your busy schedule to spend time with your creator, you are in serious trouble. Take time to “Stop and Listen” on a regular basis, it will be life changing, because God is always ready to speak! We are stewards of the time given to us, who, what and where will you spend that precious commodity we call “Time”?