Busy-ness

So who here is busy? If we were all excited elementary students with like tendencies, we'd all shoot our hands up and scream, "I am! I am!!"

Well, I AM super busy...can anybody testify to that? Do you spend every waking minute doing homework, going to meetings, and studying yet still trying to create time to create and deepen relationships on campus and maintain relationships left at home? I know I do...

You know it's bad when you get takeout at Ada's just so you won't run into a ton of people you know in the DC...

You know it's bad when you hide out in unused science building rooms so nobody will find you in the library...

We make so much time and room to further our studies, don't we?

But wait. Isn't our Jesus of much more importance?

Why don't we tiptoe to our hiding place, our prayer closet, our forest alter in hopes that nobody will see us because we are in dire excitement of spending more and more time with Jesus?

Why don't we eat from Ada's to avoid the time consuming traffic of the DC because we just don't want to "waste" any time away from Christ?

Maybe the question is this: why have the priorities of the world (academic success) overtaken the priorities of God (intimate relationship with Him)?

Or now, should we ask ourselves: why are we letting [insert time taker here] take over our devotional time?

Why are we letting ourselves become so tired that reading the Bible before bed is just too big of an "inconvience"? Don't you think it was an inconvience to Jesus leave His thrown as God to feel pain, sweat, weep, and bleed? Or what about this? Don't you think it was an inconvience for Him to die a gruesom, bloody death for a people who were undeserving?

Do you really think that He LIKED dieing for us?

He didn't... He told God that if it was possible to let this not happen...So you know what? Yeah, we're students! And we've got more worldly commitments than we can possibly handle, right? All these assignments and obligations and meetings and social opportunites are pressing needs and demand our immediate attention, but we can't submit to them. Sure, we've got to do them, but we can't let them take time away from our TRUE priorities--living out the God-centered life. He wants to be in such a tight unity with us and we can't live that out when we're pursuing things other than Him. He must be our sole pursuit.

So yes. Do your homework. But maybe try this: Start each day in prayer and commit to live it as God leads. For every hour of homework, read a chapter in the Word. Do homework and study early in the day. Don't let that time in between classes or before dinner slip by you and go to waste. Use it for some super quick homework crunch time. And after dinner, maybe go for a walk and just meditate on God's creation...how beautiful He made it for us. And if you've got some extra homework, go ahead and do it. But don't work so hard that you stay up so late that you can't read the Word before bed. Work hard throughout the day on homework for the Lord, but let yourself relax in the evening. Develop FIRST your relationship with God, second with people on campus, and third, maintaining relationships from home.

Don't be like the rest: normalcy says to burn out and grow weary. Defy the norms of our world and pursue Christ first and fiercely. If if doesn't turn out well, sue me. I'm confident you won't be able to. : D