Living an Abundant Life
[30-day Content Challenge] "He's a creative God that created you, and he is the one that inspires you to create."
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
- Romans 12:2 NIV
Everything but what could be called meaningful activity is god to the people of the West. Activity for activity’s sake reigns above most, even those who claim to follow Christ. Few can escape its grasp. Everywhere you go, society pushes you to spend time, money, and energy in much busyness without producing what a Christian would say is life-giving fruit (God-multiplied results). Much of our activity and busyness is frivolous and vein. The entire book of Ecclesiastes speaks deeply on this subject (here are some verses of note). This is the state of the West: sitting at a desk at your office job for eight hours a day when you only have two to three hours of work to actually complete in a day, if that. Literally.
Official estimates are that office workers really only spend, on average, three hours a day working. So three hours a day of work but you're sitting at your desk for eight hours…what are you doing for the other five hours? Thus, our time is certainly being leeched away even when we’re supposedly working. My hope is that facts like these will change in the near future out of necessity, but for now, this is the case. Though not busy, many of those working 8+ hours a day appear to be, and this appearance is held up in Western society and culture.
People of the West value the simple fact that one engages in constant activity. You should always be building your resume. You should be always pursuing a promotion or pay increase on your job. You should always be building your “exit” strategy. None of these things, of course, are inherently evil. Getting a promotion is not inherently evil in a Christian morality context. But the idea that you should always be seeking and pursuing material gains or greater social status is in the back of the heads of every American. It was once in my mind before God helped me evict that kind of thinking. It is true that we, Christians, are all called to be busy building what God desires for us to build. If we’re not the ones actually doing the building, then we are those that are called to work with the people who are building in accordance with our skills so that God’s Kingdom can be advanced on the earth.
We should be busy accomplishing God's purposes, and I'm just not talking just about ministry work specifically. I'm talking about you doing whatever God has blessed you to do to the fullness of excellence that he has gifted you. He's a creative God that created you, and he is the one that inspires you to create. He can inspire you to create a business that's needed in the world or in your neighborhood. He can inspire you to create a charitable organization that cares for forgotten people. He can inspire to create a warm home environment, so the souls that walk through the door will be comforted. What we find is that God is capable of inspiring all of us to do many things that would make us busy but are busy for the cause of Kingdom influence—Christ ascendance in the wandering minds of the postmodern man.
The things that make us busy and active are only meaningful if they've been “God-kissed.” By that, I mean that they're in accordance with your purpose and destiny. They are linked to your God-designed purpose, the reason that he created you in this time and set you about in the earth. Why be busy for busyness' sake? This was the message when Jesus answered Martha with regards to Mary.
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
There is a prioritization that comes with busyness and business in Christ.
33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
The order is based upon Matthew 6:33 where we are directed to “seek first his kingdom” in accordance with our purpose and destiny. Most people have been both Mary and Martha at some point in their spiritual journey with Jesus. I used to be caught up in the attitude of busyness for busyness’ sake. If you follow any self-help advice, you understand that there is always this pressure to be doing something, building something.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't be trying to build something. As Christians, we know that there are seasons for everything. There are seasons for you to build. Also, there are seasons for you to rest. Both building and resting are key types of seasons that appear in our lives. Rest begins back in the garden where God rested on the seventh day. We also understand that Jubilee years, every seventh year, were a year of restoration on the Hebrew calendar. What was lost in the previous six years’ work is restored to you in the seventh year of rest. Days and years of rest are a reminder that you can only do so much work on your own. We all must rely on God to make up the difference in our lives by leaning into him in these seasons of rest. There is always a time of repayment, of reward in the Kingdom, a time where debts are miraculously repaid and unexpected blessings are poured out.
That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Make sure to make room for rest.