The weeks leading up to Christmas are especially busy for most of us. My life is usually busy, but it seems that the holidays just make it worse. Busyness is a problem for a lot of people. It just seems that we don’t have enough time to do the things we enjoy because we’re too busy doing the things that we have to do. Sometimes we don’t even have time to do the things that we need to do. It seems that when we look at some of the basics of Christian life, we’re usually too busy to do things like pray or read our Bible. Never mind things like taking care of the needs of others. I know that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
When I was studying to get my ministerial license, I learned a valuable lesson. Not every good thing is a God thing. Let me explain. See, I was working a couple of part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. I would get off from my 3rd shift job and come home to study for a few hours before going to bed. I was involved in the church as well, leading a small group in my home, leading the youth worship team and playing on the adult worship team. I played on the church softball team. There were also all of the things I had to do at home – mow the lawn, prepare for the small group, find music for the youth worship team. Not to mention spending time with my wife and children. And then there was work. We had friends that we needed to spend time with, shopping that needed done etc.
And then there were things like prayer meetings at church, special services at church, parties, events – the list could go on and on. Some days I would get home from work and I would receive a phone call asking me to come lead worship at one of the small groups that evening. I would skip dinner and go lead worship. I loved to lead worship. I would go hunting on the weekends during hunting season, play paintball with the youth during paintball season and plant a garden during planting season. For those of you who are wondering, paintball season is anytime the weather is warm enough for the paintballs not to freeze. Frozen paintballs are deadly!
It seemed that I was always running somewhere to get to the next meeting, or to work, or to church for the next thing that was happening or to meet someone. Then I heard something that transformed my life. I learned the word “no”. But weren’t all of the things I was doing good? Working a job was good. Leading worship was good. Leading a small group was good. Being with friends was good. Going to church was good. Softball, paintball and hunting were all good. There wasn’t anything in my life that I could point to and say “I shouldn’t be doing that. It’s not good.”
Then this story in Acts 6 that caught my eye.
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” ~ Acts 6:1-4
It seems that even in the early church not everyone was agreeable about everything. People were being left out. There was discrimination. So the apostles decided to take care of it. The thing was, they didn’t do it themselves. Why not? Wasn’t taking care of people a good thing? Didn’t these women deserve to be fed? Taking care of others is biblical isn’t it? It’s right there in black and white and even in red depending on the version of Bible that you have. Running a food program? Good. So why not just take care of it. You know the saying: “If you want something done right, do it yourself”.
But here’s the thing: It wasn’t about the goodness or rightness of the thing to the apostles. It was about their purpose. They had discovered their purpose. Their purpose in life was to pray and teach the word. That was it. Pray and teach the word. Regardless of how good anything else may have been, if it didn’t involve prayer and teaching the word, then it was outside the scope of their purpose. It’s still a good thing, but let’s get someone else to do that. We’ll stick to our purpose.
Have you discovered your purpose? In all of the busyness in life, are you involved in things that may be good, but not necessarily God? What are you involved in that you need to say “no” to? When someone calls with an urgent need, do you evaluate it for purpose? When some new thing pops up in your life, do you evaluate it based on your purpose? Are there things that are sucking time away from what you should be focusing on instead of things that you feel the need to be focusing your time on? Are there good things that you are doing that someone else could do instead? Maybe even someone who’s purpose is to do that very thing. With all of the “hurriedness” of everyday life, let’s not get trapped in the revolving door of reaction based action. Not every good thing is a God thing. At least not for you.