“What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare.” Many of us are familiar with this verse from the poem by William Henry Davies. Many of us too are familiar with the experience the poet is describing. There are perhaps a number of things that prevent us from taking time to stand and stare. One in particular is rife in our culture today. It is called busyness.
Why are we so busy? The practical reason might be because we seem to have a lot of things to do. But there may be a deeper reason. Perhaps we are busy because we need to feel productive. Perhaps we keep ourselves busy because we do not feel good about ourselves when we are doing nothing. Perhaps we need to be busy because our value comes from what we do, not from who we are. Measuring ourselves by our usefulness is called utilitarianism, a philosophy that originated back at the beginning of the 19th century and has penetrated into the very core of our being. The Anglo Saxon work ethic dominates our western culture and has a huge impact not only on the way we see ourselves, but, more importantly, on the way we feel about ourselves.
Perhaps another reason we keep ourselves busy is because we believe that we need to earn the acceptance and approval of Jesus. “Look busy! Jesus is coming!” is a voice that has influenced our religious experience. It creates a double whammy that leaves us struggling. Not only is busyness something we expect of ourselves; it is also something Jesus expects of us. This is bad religion and a terrible misunderstanding of the good news of the Gospel. Jesus’ love does not have to be earned. It is GIFT, not achievement. Who we are is much more important to Jesus than what we do. He allows us to be and to rejoice in our ways of being. This is what it means to be loved unconditionally by him. Jesus is happy for us to take time to stand and stare. Our culture may make us feel guilty doing it, but Jesus doesn’t!