Waaayyy back in the late 90’s, before Y2K, I had the privilege of co-producing and directing a children’s musical for Christmas at our church. Third through sixth grade children auditioned and were given specific parts while incorporating all the children in the chorus. The name of the musical was Free Gift. It was written by Pam Andrews.

It’s not a great picture of the cover; what’s important to this story is how one particular song spoke to me during that season and how just saying the phrase “too busy! Are you too busy?” starts the tune off in my head.

That year I had an eight year old son and an almost two year old son. I was homeschooling the third grader while wrangling the willful toddler. My engineer husband was busy with his career but made every effort possible to be at home and active as a dad. Our son was in soccer, Cub Scouts, AWANA, and now this play. Too busy? It didn’t end there. I was asked to consider taking on this musical in addition to all of the rest of life. I knew I could do it because in my professional life as a teacher I had directed and produced several musicals incorporating two classrooms of students in each musical so I knew what I was getting into. Too busy?

I didn’t really consider the cost of time given to rehearsals that could have been spent preparing for Christmas in our home. I didn’t consider how tired I would be, how being stretched too thin would negatively impact all my relationships, how much of a sacrifice this would be for everyone involved. I didn’t stop to count the cost.

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

I look back on it now and although it certainly was a hit, the children were amazing, they had a great time, and their parents loved seeing them on stage in a variation of a traditional Christmas play, I know I would not say yes again with the wisdom I’ve gained from the words of that one song. I was too busy for Jesus.

Do you feel that way this season? Are you frantically trying to get all the things shopped for, wrapped, baked, shared, attended? There is a cost to all that busy-ness. It’s paid by your soul. Our interior life keeps a different pace than the outside world. We usually don’t notice until we’re at a crisis point of some kind; depleted and cranky, irritable and sleepless or literally sick and tired.

Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash

Becoming aware of the too busy habit is the first step to change. I’m not a quick change artist. It takes me a long time to take action to shift habits of thought to become different actions. I know how challenging it is.

Deciding to take different action steps needs reinforcement. We need each other to be encouraged to stay the course of new decisions because it’s so easy to fall back into old habits.

Change is possible. You can say No to being too busy. Your soul will thank you.

Action step: take an inventory of your calendar. Pay attention to your breathing as you take this inventory. Do you find you’re experiencing stress related to an over full calendar? How much margin do you have between events? This is an element of soul care. You are valuable.