Are you busy-rable?

We're approaching that time of year when new schedules begin, new routines, schools and clubs start back up again... it's just so exciting (especially if you're like me and are ready for a break from the kiddos!) But it's also time for the inevitable: being bombarded with requests to volunteer for this, that and the other! ... So, are you going to sign up, commit, say yes, dive in? will you be guilted into doing something? or maybe you're thrilled to say yes to everything so you can be involved, in the know, and active.

I'm going to throw out some new words here...

I personally struggle with what I'll call "yes-itis," that is I have a hard time saying no to things people ask me to help with. And when I am suffering from a bout of yes-itis, I become "busy-rable" (rhymes with miserable), that is I am miserable in my own busyness - unable to have time for truly worthwhile efforts because of being consumed with my own schedule of "to-dos."

I was reading a meditation about being too busy to live justly, and I came upon that word, busy-rable. I love this new word, because I think it's a real condition all of us can suffer with - and probably have at some point. In this meditation, Jana Riess reminds us that we shouldn't substitute busyness with effectiveness in relationships. She says, "Chaucer once wrote that great peace is found in little busyness.... Learning to say no to some tasks has been revolutionary for me, both as a Christian and as a woman. I no longer want to make nice. I want to do good."
...Can I just repeat that last line?!!!...

"I no longer want to make nice. I want to do good."

Wow! I mean, my biggest problem is that I want people to like me. So saying no is SO hard, because I wonder if they'll think I don't support them, or I'm a slacker, or I don't have my priorities straight or if I don't do it nobody will! And so I sometimes say yes to "make nice." But that's NOT what I really want to do. I really want to "do good!" I want what I spend my time doing to be purposeful and for the good of the world! I want to live justly, serving the least of these. I want to be so "not busy" that I can have time for helping the mom in the line at the grocery store... time for stopping to let a stranded driver use my cell phone... time for going downtown to share a meal with a homeless friend... time for writing a letter to my congress person about AIDS help needed in Africa or an environmental initiative needing to be passed...

I'm so much better at saying no than I used to be. And (along with many of you reading this) I'm trying to spend less time "at church" (where most of my "yes"es go) and more time out in the community "being the church." ...But I have so far to go.

I never want to be busy-rable again. I want to have that peace Chaucer mentioned, knowing that the everyday things that happen in the midst of not being busy can have Kingdom impact - they can make the world a better place! You can help hold me accountable to that. Please do.