The burden of busyness

COMMENTARY: The burden of busyness
Shannon Vowell, Nov 6, 2008

By Shannon Vowell Special Contributor
United Methodist Reporter
http://www.umportal.org/main/article.asp?id=4367

Most of the moms I know are currently girding themselves for an annual challenge that is longer and more grueling than any triathlon yet invented. Starting the day after Halloween and continuing through Jan. 1, we’re on a treadmill that’s known (ironically) as the Holiday Season. We’ll race from event to event and obligation to obligation, smiling gamely at our exhausted children as we cheerlead them through exams, college applications, preschool plays, football playoffs and extended family gatherings—all while we’re baking treats, cleaning for company, shopping for gifts and organizing. And this year the Holiday Season looms large against a backdrop of international gloom: recession, uncertainty and war. It’s enough to make a grown woman declare she doesn’t want to play anymore! On the treadmill Jesus said, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) But my experience is that the Church goes into holiday-season mode just like the world does. The treadmill dials up to sprint speed, and folks can either get on and run like blazes, or get off and feel guilty for not participating. Try as I might, I cannot find a scriptural basis for most of the things we do in church around the Holiday Season. Other than worship, which all too often gets pre-empted by distracting Christmas-themed performances, what are the things on the church calendar that logically line up with the story we purport to be telling? So many holiday traditions at church are simply that—holiday traditions; things that must be done every year without fail simply because they have been done every year without fail. But slavishly following a pre-determined agenda at a frenetic pace on the basis of tradition is not offering Christ. In fact, it probably counts as getting in Christ’s way. When the church forgets that we are supposed to be in the business of offering the peace of Christ rather than perpetuating the busyness of the Holiday Season, we burn out church members and compromise our ability to witness to a weary world about Jesus’ invitation to rest in Him. And then the burden of busyness sinks deeper onto the backs and into the hearts of people who are desperate for hope and respite. It’s good to remind ourselves that busyness and holiness are not even tangentially linked, and that we are called to be holy, not busy! The main thing Before the Holiday Season gets going in earnest this year, let me make a suggestion to moms and church planners alike: Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing—and leave room on the calendar for cuddling on the couch with kids. If an activity—even an activity at your church—doesn’t serve a clear and meaningful purpose, don’t do it. Use the time you save to talk to your children about whom we give thanks to at Thanksgiving, and why Christmas celebrates the Incarnation. Help them see the difference between the Incarnation and Christmas as a consumer orgy. Make this the year that you leave the burden of busyness at the feet of Christ. Jump off the treadmill, defy the guilt and sing with the angels: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14)

Ms. Vowell is a Dallas freelance writer. e-mail: savowell@att.net.