I’ve lived in a number of places and visited many more, and I’ve survived successive decades and even a few eras. I’ve also seen many changes and trends and fads, and among the most distressing of all was the arrival of what I call, “busy people.”

Busy people have no purpose and no focus and never have enough time; they’re always in a hurry to be somewhere, to do something, to be someone. You ask them, and they’ll tell you – if they have time to tell you – that they are overworked, underpaid, tired, restless, and if they’re honest: empty. Busy people are always learning, shopping, competing, meeting, moving – boring. They’re too busy to say “hello”; too busy to ask how you are; too busy to ask who you are! What makes them like this?

Today’s society measures success by how much you accomplish, and how busy you are getting to your accomplishment. For example, parents are seen as having accomplished a great deal if their child gets into the top university; but since universities have limited space and resources, and because enrollment is up – the child will probably need upgrading. This involves the busyness of extra classes in this, and special courses in that; Saturday school for math, Wednesday evening class for writing skills, Monday night classes for science … the list goes on. By age 10, a child of today can be busier than I have been in my whole life. The busy-life starts with competition.

To make this worse, many parents are also socially competitive with other parents. Extra classes are not just for math, science and English, they now include many extra activities like dance, drama and sketching classes. The parents want to show that their children are cultured civilized little copies of themselves.

Drama classes are pointless because kids are natural actors; just watch how well they behave around Christmas time. The same is true with dance lessons. Friday night dances at the local school will teach them all they need to know about dancing. When he’s 40 years old, your kid won’t appreciate the Nordic, Celtic, or lion dances you forced him to learn.

On a more expensive and useless scale, are music lessons. A one hour lesson each week and 4 hours of practice, adds up to a lot of hours, not to mention the money. Why. Just so a parent can show-off their child’s skill when friends come over? Believe me, your child doesn’t want to learn violin or piano – especially to play Choapatan’ts fifth fugue in G minor. If he likes music – just buy him a used $100 guitar out of the classifieds and tell him to pick-it-up when he wants and have fun.

Some parents insist their children take activities designed to preserve their own culture – which is really the parent’s insecurity about their culture; and this can be in ethnic dancing, calligraphy or various lessons in something-or-other. These are time consuming and accomplish little. As a history buff, I know lots about my ancestors and their costumes, dances and music – but it didn’t make an ounce of difference to me as a person. Forcing the child to spend hours building his sense of ethnicity is usually a waste of time, and frequently just a disguise for prejuidism.

Technology was supposed to take away a lot of the drudgery from our lives, and free us up to relax. Washing machines now do the job in a fraction of the time it once took; however, we now squander the new-found time on computers and television. If you watch television for 2 hours a day and use the internet for one hour, in one year – you’ve lost about 1000 hours of your life. If you watch T.V. from age 15 to age 75, then you’ve wasted about 60,000 hours – that’s more than 8 years.

Busy people do more than one thing at a time. They eat and work, eat and drive, eat and talk on the cell phone, and eat and walk. Some can even watch T.V., talk on a cell phone, and use the internet – all at the same time! You can’t do more than one thing at a time and still get the benefit of both, it’s not possible. If you talk while you drive then you’re not concentrating; moreover, you’re probably driving too slow, weaving in and of your lane, or not watching the traffic light. Please. Stop. Pull over – and talk all you want. Further, when you eat at your workstation you’re not enjoying the food, you’re not concentrating on the work, and you’re not doing your digestive system any good.

Specifically, busy people get heartburn from rushing their food. And worse, busy people usually eat fast-food, with the result being heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and nervous disorders. When was the last time you saw a sheep with one of these problems?

Busy people are frequently lonely people. They sit isolated in a small room with their computer or sprawled on a couch, just staring at a piece of glass. The television creates an imaginary life and friends to replace the life and friends they don’t have. By keeping the individual isolated – television steals his life.

Busy people live their lives at a rapid pace, and soon, it becomes impossible to slow down. This furious pace makes reading impossible. History, geography, culture and much of what we are is recorded in books; but busy people never learn these things, because they don’t have time to read. Their lives are stolen from them because of the emptiness of their busy schedules. And, even if they do occasionally read, they can’t concentrate on the plot in a book because it’s moving too slowly, or they don’t take the time to digest the information and discuss it with others. These points aren’t that important however, because most of them can’t afford the time needed to park, search, line-up and leave the library with the book in the first place. They also don’t like to go for a simple walk because it uses up too much time; and a camping weekend is, of course, out of the question. Food is hurried and not enjoyed, and social occasions move by too rapidly to have any meaning.

Busy people live on a small scale; they live in the “here-and-now.” Each moment has to satisfy them, and each moment has to be lived to its fullest. Their busyness restricts how they see reality, as they don’t have the time to consider things in depth. They make hasty decisions and form rapid conclusions. For them, history just that – history. They don’t take the time to consider the past or to ponder the future.

Busy people make me nervous, as I feel like even the briefest conversation is an intrusion into their “valuable” time. They interrupt me, finish my sentences, and sometimes try to take a call while I’m talking to them. They seem preoccupied – like their not reality there with me. As to them taking a call when they are talking to me? I simply ask them in a polite but firm voice to close the phone, and if they don’t – I walk away. And in our next conversation, I insist they turn the ringer off, or I’ll walk away. It’s all about the respect that is owed to me, that the busy person doesn’t want top give.

Busy people are just trying to keep away from their own emptiness, as their frantic activity is designed to keep away thoughts of aging, sickness, loneliness, and death.

To me, busy people are boring people. They are only too happy to tell you about their macramé class or their Bolivian basket-making expedition or their jazzercise. The conversation is always about them and their careers, their hobbies and their lives.

I deal with busy people in a very strict way. When they are with me, and don’t look like they’re paying attention and start looking at their watches; I ask them to pay attention; and if they don’t (or can’t), I end the conversation. And if they look surprised or even angry – I tell them that to spend time with another person is a privilege, and I won’t share that time with anyone or anything else.

Now for the Bible’s perspective. In Genesis 2:2, the Bible says that after God completed His work, He rested; in fact, He even created a day of rest for us as well to show how important rest is. And not just for us, but for our families and employees also. Once our work days are completed, many of us rush-off to pursue strenuous activities in the evening and on the weekend. The above verse is clearly telling us that rest is essential to our lives.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve were content to live in the paradise God had created for them – and nothing is mentioned of them having a hectic lifestyle.

Moses went on top of Mount Sinai for 40 days – twice. He wasn’t concerned with the day-to-day nonsense. His greatness was seen in his ability to sit quietly and patiently listen to God.

In the Old Testament, a year of rest was ordered by God to give the land time to rest and rejuvenate itself; as land kept too busy could not sustain this pace for long and would eventually die. The same is true for us.

Job 3:13 clarifies God’s perspective. It says: “For then I should have lay down and been quiet; I should have slept; and then I should have been at rest.” Job was a man who had suffered a great deal, and as his suffering continued to increase, his thoughts were focused on the idea of rest. When we suffer, we must rest rather than try to cover it with hectic activity.

At the very start of Psalms, the Bible says we are blessed if we spend our time meditating on God’s word. These words bring you tranquility and peace in our heart. They are also the map to get us to heaven. Surely reading and learning the word of God is more important than any activity we could possibly have.

Although written thousands of years ago, Psalms 22:2 speaks to the modern world perfectly, as the writer groans in bitter agony to God: “O my God, I cry day by day, but you don’t answer; and by night I find no rest.” The man is pleading with God to receive God’s rest, and by not receiving this rest, the man’s days are in turmoil.

The man probably wrote this in the emptiness of the desert, and couldn’t get God’s attention; how much worse for us. We have a thousand times more distractions than this man ever had; so how will we get God to listen to us; when we are too busy for him?

In Psalms 116:7 the Bible says, “Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully [graciously, kindly] with you.” The soul returns to a state of rest, and this a gift from God. Rest is God’s gift.

Ecclesiastes 2:23 continues this theme. The author, King Solomon, says: “For all his [a human’s] days are full of despair, and his work is a vexation [a useless suffering]; even in the night his mind does not rest. This is also vanity [useless showing off].” King Solomon is saying that all of the things we chase after will never satisfy us and therefore, will give us no rest. Again, rest is the aim of a healthy person. People in the modern world go to all extremes to keep busy and avoid rest.

War is the universal evil, and nothing could be a bigger enemy to rest than war. God makes it clear that rest is a gift at the end of a war. In Joshua 11:23 God gives Israel the land and they have rest. Judges 3:11 says, “So the land had rest forty years.” Judges 3:30 says, “And the land had rest for 80 years.”

The war that we need to rest from can be literal or figurative. In the figurative sense, our war and enemy, is anyone and anything that keeps us from thinking about and studying God and His word. This enemy can be careers, cars, houses, toys, drugs or anything else; and the only way to win the war, is to pray with God to free us from the grasp of the busy world. And once we have God’s blessing, we must actively seek rest so we can revitalize, recuperate and regenerate.

True rest comes from sitting still or going for a walk, prayer, Christian reflection and just staying cool. Rest is not found in committee meetings, shopping sprees, TV and cell phone conversations. The last place you’ll find rest is on a computer.

2 Chronicles 32:22 tells of how the people of Jerusalem were saved from an evil king. The writer says God gave them: “rest on every side.” When our problems and fears are pilling-up, then we must run to God’s safety. This is found in rest. It is through rest that God takes us away from our enemies.

Isaiah 14:1-7 tells the story of God’s compassion for the people of Israel, as the Israelites are told they will have rest from their suffering (Isaiah 14:3), that the whole world will be at rest and quiet, and that there will be singing (Isaiah 14:7). Again the message is clear: Rest. After suffering, trouble, or even just everyday work, we need rest.

In Jeremiah 6:16 the Bible tells us to find wisdom and walk in its paths, “and find rest for your souls.”

Wisdom doesn’t live in dance clubs, or wild parties, or even intellectual debates; and it isn’t found in bars or exercise classes either. Wisdom is found when you love and respect God and His Commandments, and one of them – is to rest.

In Hebrews 3:10-11 God says in his anger: “They [disobedient people] shall never enter my rest.” He is angry with them because they “always go astray in their hearts” (Hebrews 3:10). People easily get distracted or go astray, with hobbies groups and clubs; and the busier we keep ourselves with pointless activity, the further we stray from God’s plan.

Hebrews 4:1, states, “Therefore, while the promise of entering His [God’s] rest remains. Let us fear unless any of you be judged to have failed to reach it.” In this verse, heaven is described as a place of “rest” – it is the ultimate happiness – a place of rest. Rest is the goal – not more activity.

In the final book of the Bible, Revelation, the writer says, “Blessed indeed…that they may rest from their labors’” (Revelation 14:13). After a person’s labor or work, they are “blessed” with rest – not with more activity.

Our busy lives involve us doing a lot of activities in a short space of time, and with this, we don’t make good friendships; rather, we just have acquaintances whom we see once-a-week at our exercise or music class. Don’t believe me? How many of these people have last names that you know?

People take these classes and enroll in all these programs to build their self-esteem and sense of accomplishment; but they’ll never accomplish this. When an individual is in his last week of life, he won’t be concerned with how many social committees and planning groups he was on – but, he will ponder the sadness of having led a life without rest. If an individual thinks he can attain self-esteem from being busy – then he’s fooling himself.

From a Christian perspective, self-esteem means you are held in God’s love; and its importance is in how God sees us, and not in what we do. A person with self-esteem can sit alone in the middle of a field and feel secure. He doesn’t need to be busy to feel this.

Being busy is an insult to the individual, as his sense of identity is tied to the idea of being “plugged-in” to the world – chasing after something, and being part of the “rat-race.” If everybody else is running after the newest cause or fad, then he has to be in on that nonsense to be a success. The result is the individual fails to be unique.

Being busy isn’t restricted to the secular population, but hurts the Christian community as well. Let me tell a hypothetical story to illustrate the point. Be honest and see if you can see yourself fit the story.

A lady is deeply depressed because her husband of more than 40 years has just died. She loved him very much and now she feels alone. A friend tells her to contact the local church.

Monday morning she calls the church and gets their answering machine.

Monday afternoon she calls several churches and gets no answer or a machine or a secretary takes her information.

Tuesday, she visits a church, and a polite friendly secretary asks her if she can come back on Thursday, because the pastor is busy – very busy – organizing an “inter-church teen-volleyball tournament.” She sighs, stifles back the wish to cry, and says she’ll be back. She shuffles out of the building, wraps her coat around her, and feels scared and alone.

Thursday comes, and she sits in the pastor’s office and waits. He’s late. When he does arrive, he offers her tea, coffee and an ear to listen; and at the end of 30 minutes, he suggests she show up at their Tuesday coffee and chat group.

On the way out, they bump into the pastor’s wife. “Oh hello dear,” he says cheerfully. “This is Mrs. So-and-so, her husband has just died. I wonder if you could have a word with her.”

“Oh, hello Mrs. So-and-so. I’m pleased to meet you. Yes, I’d love to speak with you – but unfortunately, you’ve caught me at a bad moment; you see I’m on my way to decorate the hall for our annual church ladies-auxiliary-appreciation-and-lobby-decorating night. Could we meet next Friday? No answer from Mrs. So-and-so; just a wistful half-smile; and a shrug of her shoulders. Again, she walks out of the place, wraps herself in her coat and goes home. Alone.

I think the reader gets the point. At some point we’ve all acted like this: we’ve been too busy to do God’s work.

As a history buff I can’t find this kind of emptiness in history. The literature I read shows people who worked and then relaxed. I can see the Kansas farmer in his fields all day, and then in the evening sitting around a warm rejuvenating fireplace with his family. (Size and color of family dog left up to the reader’s preference). Or I can see the prospectors in a Montana mining camp, say 1875-ish, sitting around an open campfire and gazing at the dazzling night sky. The stars are winking on-and-off, and a chilly breeze is wafting across the ground. The miners have their boots off, and are toasting their tired toes before a slowly dying fire. Sleepy heads start to nod, the conversation drifts into quiet grunts and sighs and a few cracks are heard as tired backbones get stretched, and then sleep – gentle, soft, and long.

Contrast that with today. An hour in traffic or on the train, 9 hours in an office or factory, and then another hour commuting home. On the way, possibly a laptop or a briefcase on the lap and – more work. Once at home, a T.V. dinner leftover, or some brought-home junk-food, and then two hours of T.V. and computer.

The weekend involves catching up on housework, mall-walking, and probably pouring over a briefcase of work.

This leaves us empty and restless, and moreover, we’ve passed this on to our children; as they are encouraged to take every imaginable hobby, activity or distraction; and Mum has to drive them there, kill an hour waiting, and then bring them back. There’s always movement, its frantic – it has no meaning.

I watch the friends of mine who are mothers. They run to take their children to gymnastics, and while this goes on, they shop, and then return back to pick up the kids. From here, they take them to drama class, piano, violin – the cycle’s endless.

I’ve saved the best two for the last. In Psalms 23 the writer says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” This means God protects us, and we shall not be without anything. The imagery here is of a person with hot tired aching muscles; exhausted burning eyes, and mind swimming in confusion. God then leads him beside a beautifully quiet flowing river, and in mid-stream, there are some rocks, and the water is gently gurgling and bubbling around it. The person lies-down in the cool, cool grass. This grass has dew on it and there is the smell of creation everywhere. The man lies on his aching back and gazes-out on the endless blue sky.

The verse continues, “He [God] restores my soul.” Again, the idea of restoration of the soul comes with rest, not activity. Try to connect the above imagery, to your daily life.

Finally in Exodus 33:14, God said: “My presence [love, wisdom] will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Please rest.

God bless you.