B = B

Busy gets a bad rap.  There are articles and blogs all over the place suggesting many of us are cramming our calendars with too many activities, too much volunteering, and too little free time.  We are called human BEings for a reason, experts say.  We are supposed to just BE every once in a while.  Our bodies need stillness, our minds need rest, our souls need an afternoon by a large body of water without an Iphone alert interrupting the peace every forty-three seconds.

Truthfully, I’m in.  I totally agree.  We are too busy.  I am too busy.  I have a hard time saying ‘no,’ like the majority of the other women in my life, and my weeks often sail by as a stream of commitments I scurry to fulfill, leaving me exhausted and used up by the time the weekends roll around.  I’m an introvert, after all.  Many people don’t fully understand what that term means.  I didn’t understand it myself until adulthood, but the cliff notes version goes like this:  Extroverts gain energy by being with other people.  Introverts gain energy by being alone. 


This doesn’t mean introverts do not fully enjoy being with others.  It doesn't mean introverts are shy or awkward or quiet or unfriendly or not outgoing.  I love being with others.  I am not shy. I am not quiet.  I am very outgoing.  I was voted “Friendliest” in high school. I can talk anyone’s ear off for a very long period of time (days even), but when the conversation is finished, I need to go home and be by myself for a bit.  If not, I get tired, because I’m an introvert.  Simple as that.

Sadly, I didn’t learn this very important fact about myself until I was in my thirties.  Thinking it might have been helpful if I’d realized I was an introvert before I went off to college and signed up to live in a sorority house with seventy-five other girls who thought they were women.  But it took mothering an introverted child for me to finally figure it out.  Also thinking it might be helpful if my second child was introverted too.  She's not.  She's so not.  She talks all day and all night and every second of every minute of every hour we spend together AND HOW IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS QUIET WILL I EVER SURVIVE MOTHERING THIS CHILD?!?!

I fully agree that too much busyness in my life is not healthy for me or my family, and not only because I’m an introvert who requires down time to function as my best self.  I don’t think being busy all the time is healthy for anyone.  We all need to maintain some unscheduled hours in our lives on a regular basis. 

Still, busy gets a bad rap, because the fact that we are very, very, very busy can only mean one thing . . . we are very, very, very blessed.

Busy means blessed, my friends!  Our lives are full because they are full of blessings. 

We have work commitments because we are employed.  We have household commitments because we have food, warmth, and shelter.  We have volunteer commitments because we have the ability to help others.  We have family commitments because people care to spend time in our presence.  We have tennis matches and book clubs and date nights and family vacations because we are healthy and happy and free to make our own decisions about how we spend our time.

I’ve complained about being too busy.  I’m pretty sure I’ve even bragged about being too busy.  Busy must mean productive, right?  Busy must mean helpful?  Busy must mean . . . the list could go on for days. 


I suppose busy might mean you are productive.  It might mean you are helpful.  It might even mean you are selfless or an overachiever or a workaholic or the greatest parent, wife, friend, daughter, employee on the planet. 

But here’s what I know for sure.  If you are busy . . .

You.  Are.  BLESSED. 

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to

God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:17