BUSY - Being Under Satan's Yoke

I found the following while going through a very old stack of papers. I have from time to time recalled this lesson when my life seems full of inconsequential busy-ness and I feel the Heavens are quiet and I am far adrift from my spiritual moorings. It's definitely something to think about.

BUSY

Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to his evil angels. he said, "We can't keep the Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming and intimate, abiding relationship with Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, let them have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so they can't gain that experience in Jesus Christ.

"This is what I want you to do, angels. Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" shouted his angels.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days a week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice.  Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive, to keep the TV, VCR. CDs and the PCs going constantly in their homes. And see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical, contradicting music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.

"Fill their coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, sweepstakes, mail order catalogs, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services, and false hopes. Even in their recreation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their recreation exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the coming week. Don't let them go out in nature to reflect on God's wonders. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, and movies instead.

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotion. Let them be involved in soul-winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes that they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

It was quite a convention in the end. And the evil angels went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy, busy, busy, and rush here and there.

Has the devil been successful at his scheme? You be the judge.

What about this definition of BUSY?

B-Being U-Under S-Satan's Y-Yoke 

I think sometimes we get mixed up. For instance, we are supposed to be "anxiously engaged," and we are warned and commanded not to be idle, but I think we can be busy and idle simultaneously, and we can be busy without being truly engaged. For instance, think of an employee who is always looking to look busy, without really having to work. You know, the guy who does a cart run even though he just did that. From my own experience, I relate to the junk mail reference listed above:  when it comes time to clean up areas in my home I often find that way too much time ends up being spent on mail and flyers and newspapers and whatever other papers are lying about. Before I know it, my time to tidy is gone and all I've done is read a bunch of junk. It's so frustrating!

All too often I am regretfully busy. I say this because there are times when a neighbor or family member or friend will say, "I would have (asked, told, talked to) you, but you're so busy I didn't want to bother you." Oh, the sting! So let's ever keep in mind that "being busy" can too often morph into "being too busy."

A few more thoughts:

"I fear that many of us rush about from day to day taking for granted the holy scriptures. We scramble to honor appointments with physicians, lawyers, and businessmen. Yet we think nothing of postponing interviews with Deity--postponing scripture study. Little wonder we develop anemic souls and lose our direction in living. How much better it would be if we planned and held sacred fifteen or twenty minutes a day for reading the scriptures. Such interviews with Deity would help us recognize his voice and enable us to receive guidance in all of our affairs." -Carlos E. Asay, 

"I've come to understand something that happened to me in my early teens. I was in a hurry when I felt, not heard, a voice, an impression, which I knew then was from God. It was close to these words: 'Someday, when you know who you really are, you will be sorry that you didn't use your time better.' I thought then that the impression was odd, since I thought I was using my time pretty well and I thought I knew who I was. Now, years later, I am beginning to know who I am - and who you are - and why we will be so sorry if we do not invest our time well...." -Henry B. Eyring