The Good, the Bad, and the Busy

With the school year begun in earnest, I have discovered just how little time I have. I spend a good portion of every day at my university, come home, finish homework, and try to eat and sleep between social and church activities. It seems like every day someone has hatched a plan to study together or go out to eat or go mini-golfing or have a movie night. And let's face it, those are the things that get me through a week of calculus: I look forward to them and have a reward for surviving another few days.

On top of school and social events and church functions, I have things to do around the house, need to get some exercise in, and especially have quiet time. Unfortunately, by the time I am home and have checked social media thoroughly and pretended to do homework while on YouTube (admit it, you've done it too), I don't have much time for God.

Oops.

But honestly, it isn't really because I don't have much time after everything else...it's because I don't make much time before everything else.

I know I've talked about this before (Idolatry of Origami) but it's so important that I want to talk about it again.

And before I get into it, I just want to say that I am not pointing fingers or preaching at you. I am reprimanding myself for the time I spend on social media and with friends and even at church.

"Even at church"? Yes. I think that being at church and serving there is a great thing, certainly something God wants us to have. But I think that a lot of people (unconsciously) think that, if they go to church and serve God and worship with the Body, they will have gotten all their "God-time" for the week. I love church and volunteer/mission work, but if that is all I do...well, I've missed the point.

Imagine that you have a friend and you spend a lot of time at their house, looking at scrapbooks and baking their favorite meals and cleaning their house and doing favors for those they love. Imagine further that, although you do a lot of great things for them, you never actually sit down and get to know them. You could tell another friend all about them and how to be friends with them. But you don't actually know them.

God doesn't disapprove of our going to church or of our service to Him. Those are good and even necessary things to grow in your Christian walk. But God said,

To love [God] with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12.33 NIV)

Of course, we don't actually set cows on fire and offer them to God on an altar, but we give of our precious time and resources when we attend and serve at church. And I'm not saying that God doesn't appreciate those things. But He calls us to love Him and love one another, and that is more important than anything. Everything.

So if loving God and others is our highest calling, why are we spending so much time on Instagram and Netflix? I sometimes think that the many blessings we have in a developed nation like America are really more of a distraction than a blessing, when it comes down to it. They keep us busy. I heard a quote (and it has been attributed to several different people so I'm not sure who actually said it) that sums this up:

"If Satan can't make you bad, he'll make you busy."

I read C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters and it was so eye-opening, because one of the tactics that Uncle Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood to use to keep his subject from gaining salvation was to distract him, to keep him too busy to consider what he had learned.

None of the things that we do during the day that keep us busy are inherently sinful. (I say this generally...obviously if you do spend your time in an activity that is inherently sinful, then you will need to work that out with God. I am talking about social media, socializing, and general busyness.) But they become sinful when we allow them to intrude on our time with God. For example, if reading this blog distracts you from your devotional time, then you can stop reading it. I would much rather you hear God's words than mine.

Again, this is just as much to myself (if not more) as it is to you. Frankly, the first thing I do when I wake up is not to have a moment with God. I usually check Instagram. And blogging about it makes it feel so wrong, and I want to resolve to stop. But I know that, when I wake up tomorrow morning, more likely than not, I will be halfway down my feed before I realize that I am going to be late for school, and I will be halfway to school before I remember that I haven't had much water to drink this morning, and I will be halfway through my day before it hits me that I haven't given God a moment's thought.

And He deserves so much more. I mean, He deserves more than I could ever possibly give, even if I dedicated my entire life to worshipping Him. But He deserves more than a table blessing and a half-absent prayer request.

So let's give Him the time and the praise and the love He deserves.