Too Blessed to Be Stressed: The Bible, on Busyness

I love it when God hits me between the eyeballs with a baseball bat message directed just when I most need it.

It happened again today. I was looking at my calendar, which today holds not only my usual work, but also an important Diocesan School Board meeting and the filming of not one, but two episodes of the new television program that I’m hosting and producing. And that’s only the part of my calendar that happens before things get really going tonight…

Needless to say, the lack of blogging here lately is due to the fact that it’s May. I should simply remember each May 1st to tell myself, “It’s all going to be ok! You may feel like your up to your eyeballs in commitments, but somehow God will provide and you’ll get through it.” It happens every May, and this year the crazy, chaotic busyness of both family and work commitments has zipped into overdrive.

So this morning, instead of taking the time I know I need for morning prayer, I went straight into “check things off the list mode”. I felt my blood pressure rising and my patience thinning. Something gave me pause to stop long enough to remember to reach out in prayer to the One who knows exactly how much I can handle.

I decided to google, “What does the Bible say about busyness?”

The first passage that came up:

As they continued their journey he entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary [who] sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10:38-42

As if that weren’t direct enough, I thought, “Hmmm…. maybe I should blog about this.” My next stop, instead of to my knees in prayer, was to my favorite copyright free image source — the post needs art, right? Searching for “busyness”, the page yielded immediate results – and amidst the typical “stressed business man” and “busy bee” royalty free images was this one, in the top five results:

Please note that this isn’t a Catholic image site. It may be a coincidence, but I’m taking it as a direct order to “choose the better part” this May. The to-do list items will get done, the commitments will be fulfilled.

The One who’s really in charge will provide, as He always does.