When is life too busy?

When is life too busy?  This is often a question I have to ask myself.  Not because I necessarily want to know the answer, but because I remember the ramifications in my life of when I know for a fact I was too busy.

People have different schedules and they are filled in many different ways.  I know one person who works all day and has something going on most nights.  He is lucky if he gets one day a week off.  On the other hand I know another person who works 5 days a week, but does very little outside that.  Personally, I work a 5 day week,  have other things going on 2 nights a week plus various events including church each weekend, all while trying to find quality time with my family. 

When I think about life and how busy we have become as a society, I wonder how much of life we are actually missing, even if we are "busy for the Lord."  I wonder if God desires for us to live a life that is slower paced to where we can enjoy His creations.

Even with not being nearly as busy as I used to be, there are times when I feel like I am missing out on the rest of what God has for us.  We get so busy "doing" that we forget to see Jesus for who He really is. 

A good friend of mine used to bring up the story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus on occasion.  It was always a reminder for me that we can get so busy doing that we miss out on the blessings of Jesus Himself. Take time to read it, it can be an encouragement just to sit before God. 

I read a book a while back called "Simple Church."  It very much intrigued me, because it so much resounded with who I am.  (It also reminded me of Google and Macintosh, so simple it makes sense.)  It spoke of how often our churches get so filled with trying to "do" so many things that not only do people get stretched thin (remember 10% of the church do 90% of the work), but many of the things we do, aren't done well. 

As I think about that concept, I wonder if the same implications are true for ourselves and our families.  Do we try to do so much that we run ourselves thinner than God intended?  Does the quality of what we do suffer because we try to do too much?  Do we continually miss out on the things God has for us, because we are too busy?

I think God would rather each of us do a few things well and become skilled at it, than for us to keep trying to do so many things that we are okay at.  That however, is another post for the future.