How often do you hear people talk about time. “I don’t have enough time!” “Give me a little more time.” “There just isn’t enough time.” The truth of the matter is that regardless of how much we wish for more, all of us have the same amount of time. When we use it up there is no more. Face it, there are only twenty-four hours in a day. Regardless of how we would like to have more, no way man. It is simply not going to happen. So, why do we have so much trouble with time? Where does it go?

One of the things that plagues our families, our churches and even our jobs is what we call busyness. Try engaging someone in a decent conversation and before long they are telling you about all the things they must get done and how little time they have to do them. There’s housework to do, the kids’ soccer games, grocery shopping and the list goes on. I read of someone who had an expression for it. He said people are as busy as a fiddler’s elbow. In 1982 Dr. Larry Dossey wrote about “the obsessive belief that one’s time is getting away, that there isn’t enough of it and that one much peddle faster and faster to keep up” and called it “time sickness.”

Is there something wrong with being busy? Isn’t it better to be lazy than to be slothful? Busyness is not the problem. The problem is what are you busy doing. The bee is praised, mosquito is swatted. Why? Because fruitless busyness is destructive. Busyness can destroy are at least severely damage a number of things.

Busyiness can be destructive to a marriage. Research shows that, on the whole, married people are healthier and happier than unmarried people. However, research has also shown that busyness can produce stress fractures in a marriage. Busyness interferes with conversation and conversation is vital to a good marriage. Often the home becomes so busy that husbands and wives feel more like traffic controllers than spouses and parents. Research reveals that on the average a couple spends less than three minutes of meaningful conversation in a typical day. A person spends more time than that talking to a bank teller. With all the things most families have going on, there is seldom time for meaningful conversation.

Busyness is destructive to plain old every day fun. By the end of the day most family members feel like hamsters in a wheel and that is a shame. Life does not have to be a drag. Solomon said there is “a time...to laugh” (Ecc. 3:4). He also wrote, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine” (Pro. 17:22). Lord Byron commented on this by saying "Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine." However, busyness will rob a person of joy and take the fun out of life.

Busyness helps to identify priorities. People talk about not having enough time to do everything. In such cases, what is it that these people usually get accomplished? You can be sure it will be the things they feel are the most important to them. Christians should carefully evaluate the things they feel are important. Jesus spoke f priorities when He said “seek ye first the kingdom of God.” If not approached with the right attitude, busyness can in opposition to this principle by distorting priorities and making even the strongest Christian occasionally forget what is truly important. Jesus told us "occupy" till He comes. That means to keep busy doing His work. So, remember the question is not are you busy, but rather what are you busy doing.