We’ve been in series about “Running on Empty.”  I’m doing this because people are worn out, drained and exhausted and any other synonym you can think of for “empty.”  I got too tired to look for any more. 

Busyness has a price tag.  Sometimes there are health consequences.  It is hard to go deep when you go wide.  You may touch on a lot of things, but you are merely the king of the land of shallow.  But you can say one thing—you’re busy.  If any of these words describe you, please raise your hand—busy; rushed; stressed; fatigued; overloaded, superficial.  I simply did that because I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone.  Misery loves company.  If I can ask one thing of you today, it is this…I want you to be really honest with yourself as I am speaking.  I want you to honest about your busyness…about your emptiness.  I want you to be honest about how you don’t want this any more.  I trust we can leave here this morning with some tools that will make us stronger, healthier and more joyful people. 

If you look at your outline, you see a title there: Lies That Keep Us Busy.  At first glance, you may not even consider them to be lies.  When we are in the midst of “busyness,” we often lose perspective.  I encourage you to take some time after worship today to think about these statements and see how if they are part of your daily belief system.   

• “There’s not enough time to do everything.”

This lie actually has another name: “If there were only more hours in my day.”  The truth is there’s just enough hours in your day that God wants for your day.  If there’s not enough time to do everything, then someone has mismanaged their time.  Either you or God.  Care to take a guess?  Since we often don’t like to blame ourselves, we somehow take a shot at God.  When you say, “If there were only more hours in the day,” you’re blaming God, who is the Creator of time.  Not having enough time is a lie that fuels our busyness. 

• “It’s just a busy season I’m in now.”

We tell ourselves and tell our families that this is just a season of busyness.  At some point, things will slow down and we’ll get back to life as it was.  The problem is, busy people don’t have seasons.  To them, life is like living in south Florida….they have one season—BUSY!  It’s always hot in Miami.  Everything’s hot in Miami, except maybe the Dolphins right now.  The season is not busy…the person is busy.  Those of us who are “busy addicts” don’t like to admit that we’re addicts.  We’re out to score our drug of choice, which is activity.  If you believe this lie, you will always be busy.  And I say that as an “activity addict” myself. 

• “But this is really important.”

This task, this meeting or opportunity…we line these things up that are really important and we’re constantly faced with busyness.  In the work world, we have the component of what our co-workers and bosses think is important.  To they transfer their urgency so it becomes our emergency.  Their problem now becomes my problem and it crowds onto my “To Do” list. 

Folks, when we think that everything is really, really important, it shows that we don’t have the discernment to decide what is really important.  If I quizzed most of your one-on-one and asked you what you value most in life, you would say, “I put God first, my family second, career or school third…”  However, do our choices validate those values?  When we’re so busy, we often crumble under pressure and we elevate things that aren’t that important and we devalue things that are really important. 

These lies actually have an “over-riding” lie, which is BUSY IS BETTER.  When you greet someone you may ask, “How you doing?  Keeping busy?”  We ask that because busy is the ultimate value.  “Oh, you’re keeping busy?  That’s great!  So am I.  Well, I’ve got to go be a superficial guy.  See you later.”  Busy isn’t better.  Choosing better is better.   

I’m a person who is often busy and I’ve been around busy people for years and this is what I’ve discovered.  It may be somewhat offensive to you if you are a busy person, but busy people are broken people.  They’re often broken emotionally, spiritually and relationally.  And busyness is what they use to fill in the brokenness.  You may be thinking, “You’re wrong, Bratley.  I’m busy but I’m not broken.  I’m very healthy.”  You probably aren’t and you’ll realize that when you get to heaven. 

Busy isn’t better.  Choosing better is better.  Let’s validate this statement from God’s Word in Luke 10:38-42.  It’s a conversation Jesus has with two people—one who chooses better and one who doesn’t.  “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.  And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet & listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him & said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’  But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious & troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’” 

Let’s unpack this brief conversation.  Jesus comes to this woman’s house with His twelve disciples.  It was customary when you entered someone’s home as a guest, they would wash your feet and give you some food.  With all the sand and dirt roads, you always had messy feet.  We get the impression from the text that Martha was not only hospitable, but she was probably too hospitable.  Martha could be the original Martha Stewart.  She is probably making place mats out of yak hair.  She is distracted with all the busyness, her sister displays an opposite action.  She is enjoying Jesus’ presence, sitting at His feet and taking every opportunity to be with Him.  The bottom line is that Mary chose better.  One was busy, but one chose better. 

Pattern of Busyness:

• It begins with good intentions.  Martha wasn’t evil in any way.  She was being hospitable.  She had a good heart.  She had opened her home to Jesus.  We are people of good intentions.  We have good intentions for our kids and for our careers, even for our ministry and service of the Lord.

• Then came distractions.  This is what happened to Martha.  Our passage tells us that she was distracted.  God in the flesh is in her living room and other stuff is more important than being with her guest.  Think about it.  If Jesus walked in here and sat down beside you and said, “Pssst.  I want to talk,” you wouldn’t say, “I want to fill in my blanks from Bill.  I don’t want to miss one.”  You would be an idiot if you did that.  In that moment, I would be your distraction. 

When you’re derailed by distractions, they can appear to be priorities.  Staying focused on what is really important is a hard thing to do.  When the weather is too bad, I run on the treadmill at the gym.  I’ve actually tried reading a magazine while running, but I simply can’t focus on the type on the page.  When you go running through life, it’s hard to focus.   

• Pressure and pity come next.  Do you hear Martha whining in verse 40?  “Lord, don’t you care?”  The text never tells us what became Martha’s boiling point.  She could have been cooking in the kitchen and a pot fell on the eggs, which splashed onto her date and fig quiche.  And that scared the camels and they started spitting.  Whatever it was, it was too much and she snaps.

And, by the way, that is usually a sign that you’re running on empty.  That you have no margin in your life.  You have no emotional reserves to draw from when things go wrong, so you say and do things that you later regret.   

I read this and think, “If I were Jesus, I would have laughed at her whining.  I would say, no, I don’t care.  I have a world to save.  I’m going to be dying on the cross for the sins of humanity and you want Mary to leave and go help you open some jars.  No, I don’t care.”  That is what I would say, but I’m not Jesus. 

So, pressure and pity enter the scene.  You’ve experienced this.  “My spouse doesn’t understand the pressure I feel to get the house clean and to take care of the kids.”  “My spouse doesn’t feel the pressure I feel to provide for our family.”  “My parents don’t understand the pressure I feel in school.”  “My boss doesn’t understand the pressure I feel when he makes me do this or that.”  That is pity.   

• Resentment.   That is the end result.  Martha says to Jesus, “Tell her to help me.”  Can’t you detect the resentment in her voice?  “If Mary was more like I am, Your feet would already be washed and we would already be eating.  We’d be kicking back watching Dancing with the Samaritans.  It would be good if she were just more like me.”  Resentment is a sign of busyness.

Here is the text in a nutshell: Busy isn’t better.  Choosing better is better.  And if we want to choose better, we have to recognize the lie.  Secondly, we have to be able to recognize the patterns of busyness in our lives.  And, thirdly, we need to long to hear those words, “You have chosen better.”  While Martha worked, Mary worshiped.  She chose better.  While Martha was distracted, Mary was focused.  While Martha felt pressure, Mary felt peace.  While Martha was filled with resentment, Mary was filled with enjoyment because she had chosen better. 

We come in contact with this Mary three times in John’s Gospel.  Here in chapter 10.  In John 11, she’s grieving the loss of her brother and she’s at the feet of Jesus.  In John 12, she is once again at the feet of Jesus when she brings perfume and pours it over His feet as an act of worship.  Mary got it right. 

If we had a choice, we would want to have the heart of Mary.  We seem to live in a Martha world and most of us have Martha wiring in our personalities, but in our hearts, we want what Mary had.  You instinctively want your soul to be close to Jesus.  How do you have a Mary heart? 

Joanna Weaver has written a book entitled Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  I would have written it but I was too busy.  How do we take action?  What action can we take against busyness and running on empty? 

1. You Confess the Lie!

Look back up at some of the lies I listed by the bullet points on your outline.  When you begin to think, “I wish I had more hours in the day,” stop.  That is a lie.  When you think, “This is really important,” stop and truly evaluate HOW important it really is.  Only a few things are really important. 

Where are you mismanaging your life?  What wrong things are you choosing?   

2. Name the Distractions.

When you realize what lie you are telling yourself, try to get very practical.  However, really busy people will probably ignore this step and push it off to the side because they know it will require some work. 

Try this.  Take a piece of paper and simply list out all the responsibilities you have.  All of the things that you have to do.  The events that you attend.  The carpools you do.  The activities you participate in.  The ministries you serve in.  List them all and then see if any of them might be distractions.  I would encourage you to pray over the list and ask God to point out any thing that may qualify as a distraction. 

How do you know if something is a distraction?  Often, it is something in my life that I said “yes” to—an obligation or a responsibility that I later regret.  Now you may think of some of your commitments like your marriage or having kids.  Those are commitments of a whole different category.   

Another way to view the list is to think at some point in your life you HAD to do that.  But now you know that you really don’t have to do it anymore.  You simply don’t know how to get out of it so you keep doing it.  That would be a distraction.  You ask God for wisdom to choose what is better. 

Remember, busy isn’t better.  Choosing better is better.  One of the best things you may be able to do is to say “no” to some of the things on your schedule.  Again, these things on your list aren’t necessarily evil.  Martha wasn’t evil in her distraction.  She merely needed to say “no” to busyness so she could say “yes” to Jesus, which was better. 

3. You Choose What is Better.

Like the Parable of the Faithful Steward, I think each one of us want to hear God say to us, “Well, done, good and faithful servant.  You have chosen what is better.”  Choosing better is fundamental in the Christian life.  That is how you know if you’re a follower of Christ is that you choose what is better.  You don’t know that I’m a Christian simply because I wear a T-shirt with a Bible verse on it of because I have a WWJD bracelet or because I go to church.  That doesn’t make you a Christian.  You know that you’re a follower of Christ by choosing God’s way over the world’s way.  It is that simple and it is that complex. 

We have a standard for what is better.  If you are a Christian, here is your standard.  The Bible.  God’s Word.  This is the standard for making decisions.  This is the standard for basing your ethical decisions, your value-oriented decisions and your choices.  Ask yourself, “Is the Bible my standard for my making choices?”  And what does it tell us?  (Eph. 5:15-16) “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” 

Secondly, ask yourself if you are really doing that.  You may SAY that the Bible is your standard, but are you making your choices based on that standard?  Phil. 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things & count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”  Is the standard REALLY the standard?   That I will do what it says, no matter what it costs?  After truly looking at your standard, you may need to ask, “What do I need to choose to say ‘no’ to today?”  This week.  This month.  This year.  Sit down and begin to cross some things out, giving you some space and some margin. 

Every time you say yes you are saying no to something else.  Every “yes” cheats someone from your time.  In reality, a lot of our life choices boil down to choosing who we’re going to cheat. 

When Martha said “yes” to work, she cheated herself out of being at the feet of Jesus.  We choose who we are going to cheat.  We all need to be able to say “yes” to what is better. 

I’m a chronic people-pleaser, so saying “no” does not come naturally to me.  Notice Galatians 1:10 “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  Or am I trying to please man?  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  Who are we trying to please?  It HAS to be God!   

And, folks, when we open up space in our lives, we can invite people into that space.  So often we rush into church and get here in just enough time to swallow half a cup of coffee and sit down.  When we slow down some, we may be able to have a conversation with someone who has come to church alone.  It all boils down to choosing what is better. 

The end result of “better choosing” is amazing.  Your pace slows down. Your calendar lessens.  Your busyness fades.  And you don’t run on empty any more.  Instead, you walk on full.  And as you walk on full, the fullness of Christ begins to overflow onto other people.  You heart becomes full and that is what God desires.  That is what we should go after.  Please pray with me.