B-U-S-Y: My Drug of Choice

by Brad Spangler

When I was about 15 years old, I began to experiment with drugs and alcohol socially. Unfortunately for me, I tend to have an addictive personality. You know, that more is better kind of attitude. By the time I arrived in my senior year of high school, it seemed like most of my peers were talking about what university they wanted to attend or what trade school they were going to. For me, I just wanted to graduate. In my early 20’s I had become what some people might call a functional alcoholic. I worked hard during the day, but it was time to escape from reality once I was home. Most evenings, this led to breaking out a bottle of wine (or 2) or some other type of alcoholic beverage that I could use to numb my soul temporarily. On October 31st, 2009, God miraculously delivered me from substance abuse, and I am happy to report that this Halloween will mark 12 years of sobriety for me. Thank God for His amazing grace!

Let’s fast forward to the present. Although I am no longer bound by addiction to drugs and alcohol, I can’t seem to shake the feeling that there might be another addiction in my life that is yet to be fully uncovered—a drug that may actually be flaunted and socially acceptable in our fast paced society. It is a “go-to” when I want to bury my feelings of pain or regret in my own life. When I’m feeling tired and sleepy, it can even be used as a pick-me-up of sorts. What is this drug, you may ask? B-U-S-Y, that’s right, keeping myself busy in many ways has become my new drug of choice. Seriously, when someone asks me how I’m doing, it is a struggle to answer that question without saying, “It’s been busy.” Honestly, there are times when I can’t truly answer that question with integrity because I haven’t slowed down long enough even to know how I’m doing. My soul hasn’t caught up with my fast-paced life. Has that ever been true for you?

So what’s the answer to overcoming this busy, driven life? How do we break out of this never-ending cycle of doing more to get more? I can’t say that I’ve fully grasped the answer, but I do know that as a follower of Jesus, an excellent place to start is looking at the life of Jesus. When you look at His life, there are many occasions where He was preaching, teaching, and healing the sick from sun up to sundown. Crowds gathered from surrounding towns just to hear His teachings or receive a healing touch from Him. But one thing that Jesus was very adamant about was getting away to a quiet place so He could commune with His Father. 

I love Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Matthew 11:28 in the Message Bible. It says, “Come to me. Get away with me, and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” As a follower of Jesus, if we are not careful, we can get more occupied with serving God rather than maintaining our relationship with Him. God has not called us to be busy. He wants us to be fruitful, and to do that; we must abide in the Vine.

In John Mark Comer’s book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, he dives deep into four spiritual disciplines that you and I can begin to implement to combat our need to be busy. While I won’t mention all the disciplines in this article (you need to get the book), I will say that the first one he breaks down is the need for you and me to have quiet time with God. Finding times of quiet and solitude have been woven into the Christian faith for millennia, and it’s taken straight from the life of Jesus. If it was necessary for Him, you better believe it’s essential for you and me. So I encourage you, as well as myself, to be intentional about planning time to get away with Jesus every day. It’s during those times that you and I will receive the proper rest our souls so desperately need.