Leakage from a Cluttered Mind

Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:6

True enough. But there are some big obstacles aren’t there? Dr. Michael Zigarelli of the School of Business at Charleston Southern University notes that today’s frenetic pace of life—the busyness, hurry, overload, burnout, overextension—lead to a common outcome: the accelerated pace and activity level of the modern day distracts us from God and separates us from the abundant, joyful, victorious life He desires for us.

Dr. Zigarelli has run a 5 year study surveying 20,000 Christians (15,000 of them from the USA). Forty-five percent of the U.S. Christians report that it is often or always true that they rush from task to task. Sixty-five percent say that it is often or always true that the busyness of their life gets in the way of developing their relationship with God. Of the different professions surveyed, pastors are the most likely to be rushing from task to task. (By the way, here’s the survey; add your own data to it.)

The survey did not ask the right questions to pinpoint why this happens to us, but Dr. Zigarelli surmises we are caught in a cycle of cultural conformity. That is, we are assimilating this culture of busyness, which leads to a marginalized sense of God in our lives, which leads to a deteriorating relationship with Him, which leads us to becoming even more vulnerable in adopting secular assumptions, which leads us back to more conformity to the culture of busyness.

The cycle must be broken, but how? What do you think?

Interestingly, pastor Joe McKeever posted his Leadership Principle No. 17 recently which directly addresses this issue of busyness. Among the many things he advises, he says, “If hurry, crowds, and noise are the problem, then stillness, solitude, and silence will go a long way toward remedying the ills of this age.” Do you prioritize times of quiet and solitude?