Busyness
- Michael Haldas
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
“The waves of change in our society threaten to make our sea legs wobble as we are buffeted from all sides with moral chaos, antisocial social media, a frantic pace of life, and of course the influence of the Evil One who seeks to lead us off course to be lost in the storms of life. "The world, the flesh, and the devil" have been stirring up seas of life from the beginning of time, yet the rate of change in our cultural moment is truly unprecedented.” (Bishop Thomas, Fr. Noah Bushelli, Fr. David Hyatt)
“Often, we’re so caught up in the rush of life that even when we’re with loved ones or doing something together, it can feel perfunctory. We rush around, trying to accomplish what we perceive as important tasks. But these very tasks make us insensitive, coarse, and callous, even as we reassure ourselves that this isn’t the case. We might think our outward cheerfulness is a sign of happiness, but that’s far from true. The Holy Fathers teach that one of the primary signs of despondency is excessive busyness and preoccupation.” (Priest Sergei Nikulin)
“It is a rather typical situation: When you are working non-stop, without any rest, be it a physical labor or intellectual work, sooner or later you end up with occupational burnout, or worse yet, a mental breakdown. The last one is equally dangerous both for your physical and mental health. Sad, but true! I am sure many of us have heard about someone who fully dedicated himself to work, with sleep deprivation and work overload, and then found himself in hospital before long. Having rest is a must-have…In the hustle and bustle of everyday life, when time flies at the speed of light and life looks like an obstacle course, you sometimes are dying to simply drop everything and listen to what your heart tells you. To close your eyes, to feel the silence that envelops us from all sides, and to contemplate things that really matter. All of us sometimes feel the urge to throw off the weight of worries and just enjoy the here and now.” (Priest Alexei Taakh)
“I have frequently encouraged readers towards a slower life. As we hurtle along at the speed of our internet service, we tend to nurture the habit of brief encounters. We assimilate information that has been formatted for speedy acquisition. The depth of contradiction, paradox and context tend to be eliminated. It is mostly fodder for delusion…man absolutely needs silence, solitude, and calm to maintain his equilibrium and to be fulfilled. Dead time is when man can take care of himself, can reflect freely, meditate, contemplate, and pray. This is the time he can devote to those dear to him and nourish a true relationship with them.” (Father Stephen Freeman, Jean-Claude Larchet)
“This truth, though, is obscured by our modern plethora of outward distraction, our capacity to drown silence in noise, to fill every solitary moment with entertainment. We have been born into a world so drained of quiet that we may almost endlessly ignore or obscure our longing in the amusements and things and accomplishments that crowd our days…quiet resides in our skin and bones as well as in our minds, and one cannot claim time for Christ without also claiming the physical experience and space that allow it. We need sleep. We need the breath of God’s Spirit that comes in prayer and deeper breath for our lungs. We need spaces even in our homes that affect us in the same way as the ancient hush of an old church, its stone walls soaked in prayer.” (Sarah Clarkson)
"All of us want to live life to its fullest - God wants that for us as well. Sometimes we think living life to the full means cramming everything possible into it. So often we have so much going on in our lives and our world becomes one of chaos, noise and clutter - and we are none the happier for it. Is this what God intended for us? Does it have to be so complicated? The answer in a word, 'no.' We are the ones who make life complicated; relationship with God is intended to be simple – childlike simplicity." (Deacon and Fellow Pilgrim)
“In the present “information age,” we are seeing even less silence, for not only do we have televisions blaring from the moment we walk into our homes, the internet has introduced noise of a different nature, on command at any time. Hi-tech gadgets fill our waking moments with music, shutting out the sounds of nature—birds chirping, the sound of wind, the lapping of waves on a beach.” (Abbot Tryphon)
“We live in such a busy world, in such a world with all kinds of information, promises, and challenges. These words of Mark, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” maybe have lost some of their power to transform lives because we live in mainstream America. We live with so much clutter and chaos in our lives. For believers living in this twenty-first century, the secularization process has reached an alarming stage.” (Father John Zeyack)
“Our hearts harden over time as we grow more distant from ourselves and allow the busyness of the world to consume our attention.” (Christine Valters Paintner)
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