Here are some great quotes from Kevin DeYoung in Crazy Busy: A Mercifully Short Book About a Really Big Problem:
The greatest danger with busyness is that there may be greater dangers you never have the time to consider.
Busyness is like sin: kill it, or it will be killing you.
When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk. The challenge is not merely to make a few bad habits go away. The challenge is to not let our spiritual lives slip away.
We wake up most days not trying to serve, just trying to survive.
Jesus was so terrifically busy, but only with the things he was supposed to be doing.
If Jesus had to be deliberate with his priorities, so will we. We will have to work hard to rest. We will have to be dedicated to being disciplined. We will have to make it our mission to stay on mission.”
I can’t serve others effectively without setting up priorities. If I respond to every e-mail, show up at every possible meeting, and have coffee with every person asking for ‘just a few minutes,’ I won’t have time to adequately prepare for [_____________].
Three truths about priorities:
1. I must set priorities because I can’t do it all.
2. I must set priorities if I am to serve others most effectively.
3. I must allow others to set their own priorities.“I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room” – Blaise Pascal
The biggest deception of our digital age may be the lie that says we can be omni-competent, omni-informed, and omni-present.
God gave us Sabbath as a gift; it’s an island of get-to in a sea of have-to. He also offers us Sabbath as a test; it’s an opportunity to trust God’s work more than our own.
You may have a reputation for being the nicest person in the world because the operating principle in your heart is to have a reputation for being the nicest person in the world. Not only is that a manifestation of pride and therefore a sin; it also makes our lives miserable (living and dying by the approval of others), and it usually hurts those who are closest to us (who get what’s left over of our time and energy after we try to please everyone else).
We won’t say no to more craziness until we can say yes to more Jesus.
When I go weeks without taking adequate time off, I may or may not be disobeying the fourth commandment, but I’m certainly too convinced of my own importance and more than a little foolish. If my goal is God-glorifying productivity over a lifetime of hard work, there are few things I need more than a regular rhythm of
God doesn’t expect his servants to all be type A, detail-oriented, Excel spreadsheet gurus.
One reason we never tame the busyness beast is because we are unwilling to kill anything.
Stewarding my time is not about selfishly pursuing only the things I like to do. It’s about effectively serving others in the ways I’m best able to serve and in the ways I am most uniquely called to
Truth #1: I Must Set Priorities because I Can’t Do It All The person who never sets priorities is the person who does not believe in his own finitude.
We don’t expect to be able to buy anything we want, because we know there is a limit to our money. But somehow we live as if time knew no bounds, when in fact time is much more limited than money. Wealth can be created, but no one has the ability to grow more time.
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