“Every age has its own characteristics.  Right now we are in an age of religious complexity.  The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us.  In its stead are programs, methods, organizations, and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart.  The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and that servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.” AW Tozer

Silence.

Rest. 

Stillness. 

These aren’t things of our time, are they?  And yet, they are just where we are pointed:

“Be still and know that I am God.”  Psalm 46:10

“He leads me beside quiet waters.” Psalm 23:2

“The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still.”  Exodus 14:14

“But the Lord is in His temple; let all the earth be silent before Him.”  Habakkuk 2:20

“For God alone my soul waits in silence.” Psalm 62:1

“And He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while’.”  Mark 6:31

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalm 37:7

These references go on and on.  The commands for us to rest; to be still; to wait; to be silent – they are clear, continual, and surprisingly concise. 

To be transparent, of all the idols we’ve explored so far, this one is the most convicting for me.  The ‘busy’ person, the calendar-filler, the taskmaster, the achiever – I am guilty of all of these things.  And digging into the Idol of Busy and what it means has been painfully expository. 

It is my great hope that through each of these excavations (you’re welcome, @ashely ;)), we are learning ways we can improve on something tomorrow, that we may have missed today.  Guilt and shame are not the ways to improve behavior change, but intentional and truthful time before the throne, can be.  This project has driven me there – before the throne – face in the dirt, empty-handed, and yet, gloriously free. 

It’s a paradox, like much of the Kingdom is. 

So if you’re still with me, grab a shovel, fam.  This one gets a little not pretty. 

In reflecting upon how the Idol of Busy impacts our culture and daily behavior, it’s striking to consider both the macro and micro expressions of our worship. 

Things like filling up our calendars, signing up to participate in as much as possible, and scheduling meetings, events, and gatherings create the impression either for ourselves, or for others, that we are needed, necessary, and that our presence is demanded by others.  It’s a way of manifesting value for ourselves, whether deliberately or via a subconscious need to feel wanted.  This too, as discussed in the Idol of Validation, can be a way through which we find our identity in places other than Christ. 

We respect ‘busy’.  We admire it.  And so it’s something we feel a need to be, whether or not we realize it – or are willing to acknowledge it. 

Though our culture somehow finds being ‘busy’ a noble asset, when reflecting upon our Biblical commands to be still; to wait; to rest; and to be quiet, I can’t help but see the conflict there.  In our day and age rest is pushed aside as a last priority; quiet, at times, is almost literally impossible; and slow is not, and will not, be tolerated. 

How can we expect to worship in the chaos?  How can we expect to commune with the Lord if we cannot be quiet before Him?  How can we rest a while with Him if we never retreat to the desolate place?  We – I – have much to learn when it comes to dethroning the Idol of Busy. 

Thankfully, Tozer gives us some practical guidance on where to begin…  

“We must… proceed in the way of simplicity.  Now as always God discovers Himself to ‘babes’ and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent.  We must simplify our approach to Him.  We must strip down to essentials (and they will be found to be blessedly few).  We must put away all efforts to impress and come with the guileless candor of childhood.”  AW Tozer

TECHNOLOGY

Technology has varied implications on our obsessions with ‘busy’, but let’s start with socials. 

In this age of self-promotion we find ourselves capturing each moment that could be perceived as important and we publish them for our adoring fan clubs.  If we travel all the way back to Chapter 1. The Idol of Self(ie), there is a question there that this brings to mind. 

“Why did you post that?” 

Those who were transparent in their answers said things like, “I like the hearts” or “I wanted people to know what I was doing.” 

Well, it’s really that, isn’t it? 

We want people to know what we’re doing.  We want to be perceived as valuable.  We want to be perceived as ‘busy’ – as wanted; popular. 

Do you remember Friday and Saturday nights as a teenager?  There is an unspoken obligation to be doing something interesting on a Friday or Saturday night, isn’t there?  In our culture we have so come to worship the Idol of Busy that if someone says they don’t have plans, it somehow diminishes the worth or value for that person.  And in our culture of social media, now every kid sitting at home on a Friday or Saturday without plans gets a front row seat to what ‘everyone else’ is doing that he/she wasn’t invited to join.  The kids who are out there doing something are glorifying their busyness to validate themselves while the kids at home are beating themselves up because they weren’t included. 

This is a dangerous lie we’re telling, and it’s an even more dangerous lie to believe. 

(I wonder if socials shut down on Friday nights… could we save a teen from suicide?)

Our technology-associated worship of ‘busy’ doesn’t just express itself through socials.  It also affects us through relentless stimuli.  

Though our worship is very macro, it also moves into a cellular worship of ‘busy’, impacting us all the way down through each of our senses.  Though this is not limited to technology, I keep it under this umbrella because technology’s assault on our senses is merciless.  

“The world of sense intrudes upon our attention day and night for the whole of our lifetimes.  It is clamorous, insistent…  It does not appeal to our faith; it is here, assaulting our five senses, demanding to be accepted as real and final.  But sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us.  The world of sense triumphs.  The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible; the temporal, of the eternal.”  AW Tozer

Our cultural worship of busy is so great that it meets us in our senses, taking over every waking moment of our smell, sight, taste, sound, and sense of touch.  There are stimuli everywhere, all the time. 

From the sounds on the street to the noise from the radio, television, phone, or tablet.  From the smells of food, or air fresheners, or cologne, or cleaning aids.  From the sights of light, visions from the television, photos and art on walls, colors, pictures, phones, graphics, logos, etc.  From the taste of gum, food, mints, soda, tea, milk, etc.  From the softness of clothing to the sleek feel of a phone case, to the varied textures of home building materials, clothing, the interior of a car, etc. 

Our senses are overloaded at all times with stimuli from the surrounding world.  And we not only accept it, we seek it.  A moment of lull is filled with social scrolling, videos from Youtube, music, TV, or phones calls or texts.  Tozer suggests that these stimuli are clamorous and insistent assaults on our whole selves, and that they make it very difficult to sense the City of God around us.  If we consider the commands so frequently decorating scripture to rest, be still, be quiet, and wait, it becomes easy to see where the strain is. 

Can I ask some potentially difficult questions? 

Why can we not be at rest? 

Why can we not be silent? 

Why must there be a sound, sight, taste, smell, or feeling to fill the void? 

What are we afraid to experience in the blankness? 

Scripture tells us to be silent and be still in order to experience more of God.  Is that what we fear? 

I wonder how our lives might change – how our culture might – if we made this pursuit of stillness, quietness, and rest a daily activity.  But the way I understand it, we’re going to have to shut out the chaos if we’re going to really do it, and I guess what it comes down to is…  are we really willing to do that?  Shut out the chaos?  Are we willing to meet silence?  

“It is for increasing degrees of awareness that we pray, for a more perfect consciousness of the divine Presence.  We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God.  He is nearer than our own souls, closer than our most secret thoughts.”  AW Tozer

MOVEMENT

The Idol of Busy has much influence over our movement decisions, the main one of which is very easily nut-shelled in one succinct sentence:  “I don’t have time.” 

We don’t have time to move.  We don’t have time to exercise.  We don’t have time for that yoga session or that exercise class or to walk to the store instead of drive. 

But… don’t we? 

If we go back to the Value Challenge and look again at how we spend our time, we will all find spaces where time can be reprioritized to ensure that we’re getting more movement in a day.  And though we’ve discussed this before, I want to reiterate that ‘movement’ doesn’t have to mean doing something you hate.  The most effective and sustainable movement choices are doing things you actually enjoy.  If you love skating, do that!  If you love swimming, find a water hole!  If you love dancing, join a class.  If you love lifting heavy things and putting them back down again, find heavy things to lift and lower!  The only one who can identify how to help you move well and often, is you.  And we are all more successful when we’re doing something we enjoy, and even more so when we’re doing it with people we enjoy (thank you @cassie, @paige, and @erica). 

Before we move on, I want to add an additional note on the Idol of Busy and our movement.  In my personal reflection of how the Idol of Busy impacts my own movement, I uncovered something that needs critical attention for my own soul, and that is the deliberate pursuit of silence.  Though I thoroughly enjoy moving and find ways to move often, God helped me see that every one of my movement choices is filled with noise.  Whether I choose to call a friend while I walk, listen to a podcast when I run, blast music when I lift, take a dance class with music, take a yoga class with music, hike with a friend, or serve with a friend, none – as in literally zero – of my movement choices include silence. 

I worship the Idol of Busy while I move. 

When I reflect on scripture’s instructions to us to be still, be silent, wait, and be at rest before the Lord, I recognize that I have the opportunity to be silent before Him while I walk, run, swim, or serve.  This may be something to consider when choosing your movement choices as well. 

FOOD

The Idol of Busy impacts our food choices in several ways, but the most obvious is one we discussed at length in our explorations of the Idol of Comfort.  We like to say we don’t have time to cook or plan for the right nutrition choices, but the truth is, this is a very convenient excuse for not doing what’s right for our bodies. 

In reality, if we choose to meal plan, shop for those groceries, and then cook at home, the process actually makes time in our schedules.  The elimination of last-minute decisions, reservations, and mobile orders actually adds time back into the day.  The groceries are there.  The meal is planned.  It may even already be prepped depending on how you prepare for the week. 

The Idol of Busy would lie to us and say the best solution is the drive through lane, but the right choice for the stewardship of our time, money, and bodies is to plan ahead.  We are not too busy to care for our time, money, and bodies.  If it feels like you are, head back to the Value Challenge and look again at how you’re spending your time and money.  Re-evaluate those columns with hypotheticals in the case that you would choose to meal plan, and then see if you can shift it around next week.  Give it a shot, test the theory, and share your findings with us here.  We’re all here to learn how to do this together, and I believe we have much to learn from each other. 

There’s so much to consider when it comes to the Idol of Busy.  Tozer’s Pursuit of God is a good place to start if you’re looking for more on how to silence the chaos and truly experience Him.  But at a minimum, may the cry of Tozer’s heart be ours as well as we seek to tear down the altars in our hearts that are not built for God’s glory.      

Nic Ford

“O God and Father, I repent of my preoccupation with visible things.  The world has been too much with me.  Thou hast been here and I knew it not.  I have been blind to the Thy Presence.  Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me.”  AW Tozer