To give you an idea of how crazy busy I feel sometimes, I bought Crazy Busy and then it sat on a shelf a full six months before I even started it. Then I managed a chapter or two in a couple of months. Then I made a decision to spend 15 minutes or so each morning reading a personal enrichment book and made it through the rest of the book in short order. If you feel like you’re crazy busy and somehow you’re missing what really matters, you can’t miss this book. Especially if you are a follower of Christ, you will find a lot of help in identifying exactly why your busyness is overwhelming you.
Summary: DeYoung offers seven “diagnoses” in this short book for why you may be way too busy, in all the wrong ways:
- You are beset with many manifestations of pride.
- You are trying to do what God does not expect you to do.
- You can’t serve others without setting priorities.
- You need to stop freaking out about your kids.
- You are letting the screen strangle your soul.
- You’d better rest yourself before you wreck yourself.
- You suffer more because you don’t expect to suffer at all.
My takeaways:
From the chapters:
- I’m crazy busy because I think I’m important and I want everyone to know it.
- I’m crazy busy because I think I can and should be what everyone needs all the time.
- I’m crazy busy because I’m lazy in things that matter and hyper-focused on things that don’t really.
- I’m crazy busy because I think if I don’t feed my kids the right food, turn off the TV, play Mozart, sign them up for dance and gymnastics and direct their every step they’ll fail in life.
- I’m crazy busy because I am glued to my computer/iPad/iPhone.
- I’m crazy busy because I stay up too late and so I can’t function with efficiency, patience, and love when I’m awake.
- I’m overwhelmed by my busyness because I think, you know what, I’m a college-degreed American and things are supposed to be easy for me.
Aside from addressing those issues, DeYoung offers really one solution that isn’t easy at all, and it’s to do the one thing that really matters, the thing Martha missed but Mary didn’t: be devoted to Christ, and know Him better. If you’re truly too busy to read the whole little book, just reading that last chapter could change your life.
Here’s to a perhaps equally busy but much less crazy 2015. I give you full permission to not think I am important, or that I am Super Mom, or that my kids are Super Kids!
And now, it’s my new bedtime.
