You know the people Jesus turned away from following him were turned away because they were too busy with other things on their minds. Field to check out. Father to bury. Etc.
If people were too busy for Jesus then they certainly are today. While we don’t have Jesus directly walk up to us and ask us to follow him it is important to consider whether or not we are actually following him or if we are too busy with other things to give Jesus our attention.
In the parable of the sower there were seeds sown in areas that were rocky and full of thorns. I believe this has application to a life too busy for the gospel. We have made the decision. We followed the “Five Steps.” We sprung up quickly but we let other things rush in and distract us from Jesus.
Maybe it is team sports with our kids. Maybe it is work and maybe you use work as an escape or coping mechanism because you don’t want to be at home because things are stressful there.
How can we follow Jesus if our lives are too full of other things and our attention is so scattered that Jesus isn’t getting any of us?
This is really a discipline issue. We haven’t disciplined ourselves to say no. We haven’t disciplined ourselves to reserve time for who and what is most important. Maybe you need to write in your planner time for discipleship on a regular basis, that way when a competing event comes up you can check the schedule and see you already blocked off that time.
2 Responses
Hey Matt, great thoughts. So true for me these days. Thanks for your comments!
I think part of our busyness problem is based upon our partitioning of God vs ourselves. For many (too many) going to church is our time with God/being Godly/worship/service and then our time is all the other time, so we fill it with us material to keep us busy and a lot of it is entertainment based. It is filler.
The Jews in some ways had an advantage in that God (God’s Law) was a part of every part of the Jews life. Fast forward to the early saints of which many were Jews, who understood that God was to be a part of our everyday life.
Fast forward to us where worship/service is something that is done in the assembly. People pull out their bible to prepare for Sunday class. Part of it is a discipline issue, but a large part of it is an teaching/training/expectation issue, because we don’t teach/train/expect people to be involved in worship and service outside of the church building.