Don’t Get Too Busy

Many of the old fairy tales ended with, “and they lived happily ever after.   Fairy tales and fables were often used to teach certain moral principles, and as a result people came to believe in the idea of living happily ever after.  Unfortunately, those fairy tales and fables leave the impression that once you reach a certain point everything just automatically goes good from then on, and when something goes wrong, people feel like their whole world has disintegrated and they have no idea what to do about it.   Their children often receive the impression that if something goes wrong the only thing you can do is throw up your hands and walk away.  These factors are especially apparent in marriages today with half of all marriages ending in divorce, and a great many younger people just not bothering to get married. 

Unfortunately, most6 people treat their relationship with God in the same way they treat their marriage relationship, just assuming it will automatically be satisfactory.  Just as building a satisfactory marriage relationship requires work on our part, building a proper relationship with God requires considerable effort.  Sadly, there is a lot of misinformation about building both kinds of relationships.   We can become so distracted by doing things for our family such as earning a good living or cleaning house that we neglect the marriage.  When our mate stops showing interest in us we become angry, not realizing that by being so busy we have effectively told them they don’t matter.  What they need is our attention, not more money or a cleaner house, but we are so busy with what we are doing we don’t realize they are dying of emotional starvation.  They could do for themselves if they needed to.  They need and want an emotional connection.  Sometimes people don’t even realize how dissatisfied their mate is until they receive the divorce papers. 

The same thing happens in our relationship with God.  We can get so caught up in going to church, winning souls, reading the Bible or praying for hours that we don’t realize we no longer have a meaningful relationship with God.  God is far more interested in your love than in all the things you do for him.  As Acts 17:24-25 tells us, there is nothing we can do for him that he can’t do for himself.  “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things…”

The emotional connection in a marriage depends on spending time to together, with both parties freely talking, sharing their opinions, feelings, and desires, with the assurance their mate will understand and give what they said serious consideration.   In the same way, we need to spend the time with God, sharing our opinions and thinking seriously about what he said.   We need to take time to talk to him informally throughout the day, not just for a designated period when we “have our devotions,” just as we would with a husband or wife we loved.   

One marriage counsellor advised that a married couple set aside thirty minutes every day to talk.  In my experience, couples found it frustrating to try to spend thirty minutes talking, even though they might carry on a conversation intermittently all day.   They needed time to think about what their mate said before they responded.  The same thing is true in building our relationship with God.  In Joshua 1:8 God commanded, “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”  Until we take the time to think about or study on what God has said, we don’t really understand, and thus cannot respond intelligently or take effective action to show our love for him. 

Please understand that those who are caught up in doing things for him seldom realize what they are missing in all their activity, as Illustrated in the story in Luke 10:38-42.  “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.   And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.  But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”  The things Martha was doing for the Lord were preventing her from developing her relationship with him.   Mary had chosen to build her relationship, which was far more important.