THE TRAP OF BUSYNESS
By
Afolabi Simeon,
1 king 20:40 (NKV)
While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone. Then the king of Israel said to him, so shall your judgment be: you yourself have decided it.
There is what we might call the trap of busyness, and it seems many people are already aught in its web. It will be helpful if we can know early enough that busyness does not necessarily connote business; you can be evidently busy and carry out on profitable business.
This is the point of our meditation today. Reading a few lines before the text of our passage we come across a parable. A prisoner of war was taken and put in the custody of an officer.
The officer was to watch over him and produce him when needed. He was even warned of the consequence of negligence if he let the prisoner escape; he was going to pay with his own life or, at least, pay a ransom.
Strange enough the prisoner escaped, and that in the course of the busy life of the officer. He said, while your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” Now, he was busy doing every other things except the assignment that was given to him. That is outright foolishness.
In life we are not marked on the basis of what we get done; we are judged on the basis of what is assigned to us. Unless we understand what is assigned and face it squarely we may just be busy but never in real business.
The other perplexing issue is that one might be unproductively busy and not even realize it. This was the case with Martha. She exuded in her vibrant, restless personality when Jesus came to see her and her sister Mary, and their brother Lazarus. She was every where doing everything.
She equally felt every one else must be as busy as she was. Not until Jesus pointed the way that she realized being busy is not being in business. As Jesus counseled her, only one thing was needful! Every one of us must find out the essential and stick with them.
Prayer:-Dear Lord, deliver me from the trap of busyness; show me the essentials for my life assignment.
Christian message, being busy, face your duties, babalobi, save the world, Afolabi Simeon,
