The New Busy

Have you heard the term “The New Busy?”

The New Busy is defined by being intentional about our life choices; making decisions to focus on certain things that matter rather than to be constantly driven by the urgent.

It’s the different between living intentionally and urgent.

Last month the Learning Community Team went to South Carolina and heard a man named Alan Hirsch speak. Alan Hirsch is a missiologist who is well respected in both academic and church circles. One of his directions to us was to continually contextulize the Gospel. In other words, we need to bring Jesus’ good news to the real areas of people’s lives.

I’ve been reflecting on the question, “What is the best news to the people around me?

Those questions led me to ask the questions: What is the most valuable commodity right now? What are people’s biggest challenges? and What do they seem most frustrated by in their regular daily life?

I’ve come to the conclusion that time is our most precious commodity and that people in my cultural context are most frustrated by the urgent demands around them and the resulting emptiness of life. It seems that getting to live into the important and intentional seems to be an elusive goal to most people.

So, this leads me to ask the question, “How can we are Jesus’ disciples model a life of the new busy?”

Jesus was never rushed or frantic. He lived into an intentional rhythm of connecting with his father, receiving direction from him, and then living it out. Jesus knew when it was time to get away from the pressure of life and spend time in authentic relationships with the people who mattered most in his life: his disciples. He knew that there were times that he needed to have a huge energy outlay, but that a time of rest was just around the corner.

Jesus is our model for the New Busy.

So, how can we intentionally learn from Jesus how to walk out the new busy so that we feel like we are flowing in a right rhythm of resting and working, as well as experiencing connection with people that are important to us. How are we structuring our lives so that we are maximizing our opportunities to live into the unique dreams that God implanted into us before creation?

If we can learn this, we are not just discovering the basic premise of the New Busy, but we are following the lifestyle that Jesus teaches us to live. The added bonus, however, is that we are also modeling a life that others around us will observe and many will begin to ask us questions about how we can live so differently while our circumstances are still so similar.

Missio Lux’ mission statement is “We exist to experience and share the freedom and hope that Jesus offers everyone.”

We can not share what we ourselves haven’t experienced. It is our challenge to have a mindset that we can live out the New Busy because in following Jesus’ directives for life, we will naturally discover how to be intentional with our time, energy and money for the areas that matter most. As we experience the freedom which comes from living the right priorities of rest and work, connection with our loving Heavenly Father and the important people in our lives, a balance between fun and focus, and generosity of our time, energy and money, we are able to share it with others.

We have an invitation to live out Matthew 11:28-30: Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Recently, I had a day where I was just so tired and weary. I was reminded of the invitation in this passage and spent time reflecting on it and inviting Jesus to give me his rest. The day turned out to be amazing. I was given energy, laughter, fun and the ability to see much of my to do list get checked off. I saw what Jesus does when we give him an invitation to meet us in our places of challenge.

This is our challenge: to take ourselves off the treadmill of constant busy and to combat the lie that we can do this life by ourselves, and to intentionally ask Jesus to help us live the New Busy. Jesus is a gentleman and he won’t force himself on us; but he will come running when the door of invitation opens.

So, how about it?

Are you willing to take some time this summer to reflect on those areas where you want to live the New Busy, and then to invite Jesus to teach you how to live into it?

I’d love to hear from you! Send in your ideas of how to walk in the New Busy and I will share them with everyone else. May our witness have impact into our culture, bringing forth Jesus’ truly good news to people’s place of need.