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Busyness Does Not Equal Success

Busyness Does Not Equal Success

By tim
17 Apr 2009

I was struck recently by something a friend said to me, 'busyness does not equal success.' It's so easy to catch ourselves judging how well things are going by the number of emails we receive, how many meetings we are in or the tally of hours we are working each week. Perhaps we find ourselves looking over our shoulders comparing our diaries to others. The danger becomes we fill our lives with work that we don't need to do and miss out on the space that is so necessary to thrive and flourish. Particularly for worship leaders and creative types, if we don't have space to be, to think and to rest, then it will be very hard to grow and develop in our giftings. I'm not sure how many songs have been inspired by an email. Without space to breathe, it's amazing how quickly we'll find ourselves out of ideas and loosing any sense of wonder. I'm aware of the lack of space in my life right now. I feel challenged to change things in my schedule to enable time to think and time to be inspired. For those feeling somewhat frazzled, dry and exhausted let's take on board the words of Jesus: “The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." MARK 6:30-31


Gravatar for Bert Bert From Protestantse Gemeente Mariengaarde, Hallum, NL
#1
17 April 2009 - 2:52pm
Does succes equal busyness?? :P
... let all the world know that Jesus saves!
Gravatar for larry larry From St Bernard's, Belfast
#2
17 April 2009 - 3:41pm
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. ...no raging torrents, no industrial-sized battery farms, no tweets or status updates, just REST(oration). Kinda funny that the other blog is how we can learn from Twitter. I wonder how many messages are actually read compared to the number posted. If we are all talking and failing to listen, are we communicating at all? Musically, we should be playing the gaps between the notes as well as the notes themselves...to enjoy the stillness and silence and notice what beauty and peace is already there without our influence, eg: blog.andyrogersmusic.com/ Reach for the kitkat...
Christus. Cras, hodie, semperque. http://www.facebook.com/laurencemurray
Gravatar for Carl Robinson Carl Robinson From Holy Trinity, Leicester
#3
17 April 2009 - 9:37pm
Dude, definitely start saying no to some things if you feel properly frazzled. My wife and I have a "pull the drawbridge up" weekend when we feel like that and just try to keep our phones off and spend lots of simple, peaceful time with God and each other. Take it easy chief and thanks for this site and all you're doing. It gets me really inspired whenever I look at it (often on a drawbridge weekend!)
Gravatar for Al Gordon Al Gordon From HTB
#4
17 April 2009 - 9:39pm
great cartoon btw... did you spend all day looking for that one? ;-)
Gravatar for Luke Strickland Luke Strickland From James Street Church
#5
18 April 2009 - 12:20pm
Hi Tim, you're right, space is really important. Can be hard to get the right balance though I find - having been a person who has swung over the years from going to every meeting in the book to avoiding meetings at all costs and finally ending up somewhere in the middle! Took some space to press into God at Spring Harvest the other week, thanks to you and Al for leading the worship - refreshing for me.. probably busy for you! Luke Check out some musings for the potting shed at http://lukestrickland.blogspot.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out some musings for the potting shed at http://lukestrickland.blogspot.com or follow me at http://twitter.com/lukestrickland
Gravatar for bobbob bobbob From unknown
#6
18 April 2009 - 9:02pm
i think the cartoon is of you Al TC http://tomcrossmusic.co.uk tom@tomcrossmusic.co.uk
Gravatar for jonathan jonathan From unknown
#7
20 April 2009 - 9:02pm
Wow. Now there's a lot of ground covered in that comment. It is easy to be busy. I see plenty of people loudly keeping themselves busy with silly little things at the place I work. That isn't really working, but it is incredibly exhausting. Tiresome. Anything but productive. Choosing the right things to do can be difficult. Saying 'no' is never easy, and particularly hard if you are in 'service'. But it is key to being successful. Taking time out is important, but you need to be productive to be successful. If you want to be productive, you need to be discerning. I've never been one to take on too much, and usually opt for the 'time out' whenever possible. The consequence of that is there is very little success in it. To be inspired, you need to be driven. Stepping away from the turbulent confusion of firefighting endless tasks is critical if you are going to realize your true inspiration. The responsibility of true inspiration though is to achieve - and that is often a lot of effort. So take plenty of good breaks - there is much work to be done in the garden.
Gravatar for Grant C Grant C From St Wilfrid's Anglican, Pretoria
#8
21 April 2009 - 10:41am
God is so cool!!! The sermon at our church on Sunday was "come with me to a lonely place" And was taken from that passage in Mark 6, and addressed this very topic. Hmmm, perhaps God's trying to say something...
Gravatar for Stephanie Zee Stephanie Zee From Hope Church, Los Angeles
#9
26 April 2009 - 5:11am
Dear Tim, Al and Worship Team -- I was so encouraged, ministered and inspired at this year's Worship Central in Orange County, USA. I'm doing my masters here in California and your ministry is a blessing to me as I learn to serve in the local church. The time of teaching, worship and ministering was powerful and very real. Thanks also to Francis Chan and Todd Proctor for saying how it is and to be bold and courageous about it! A culture of Humility rather than a culture of celebrity. Let's tell the world that Jesus Saves!! Hope to see Worship Central Canada soon -- !!!
she smiles @ the future
Gravatar for timjames timjames From St.Barnabas, Kensington
#10
27 April 2009 - 2:53pm
Hi Tim (& Worship Central), I hope this finds you well? I've been out of action the past 3 months due to a serious bout of anxiety & burnout which rendered me in the pit. I was reading your latest blog entry regarding busyness today. I found your comments really interesting and I sympathised with them. Part of the reason behind my recent illness was due to busyness in my life and not having clear boundaries where I was prioritising my creative and personal time with God. When I read your blog entry, I just felt I needed to contact you again and share this small thing with you as a way to encourage you that you're comment is right, and that it is important that we all make sure busyness doesn't get us. I think I'm proof of that now. But although this has been a tough time for me and my wife, God has broken through and used this illness to show us great things. I love how God does that. Glory! Sorry if this is a little random, but as I said, I felt a sense that I should write to you. I do hope this is of some encouragement. I returned to work last week and I looking forward to getting back into worship leading and gaining my confidence again. Cheers Tim. Worship Pastor @ St.Barnabas, Kensington.