Was I Busy or Impactful? [Day 21]
By Renee St Jacques
All things are lawful [that is, morally legitimate, permissible], but not all things are beneficial or advantageous. All things are lawful, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life]. (1 Corinthians 10:23 AMP)
It’s an interesting time to take a breather from our over-scheduled lives and evaluate them. Think about it: What were we so busy with in the first place?
As this quarantine has been a personal forcing function for me to step back and slow down, I recall a set of goals I had written at the beginning of 2020. These were goals I had written with the end in mind: What would I want the fruit of my life to be? What kind of relationships do I want to have with God and those in my life? What kind of children do I want to raise, and what kind of marriage do I want to cultivate? What does true success look like in my career, not just achievements and accomplishments but actual impact?
As I went back to review them, I knew the truth. If I was honest with myself, if this pandemic hadn’t happened and the world didn’t come to a literal stop, I would keep living the way I always did—and that was to allow the busyness and loud demands of my work usurp my focus and time on the other critical relational aspects of my life.
There’s a difference between busy and impactful (or fruitful). Busy means a schedule full of meetings and activities, but the bottom line is there’s nothing much to show for it.
What difference was made? What impact did you want in the first place?
Impactful and fruitful starts with vision for what difference you want to make. What does the world need from me? What is my calling? What will matter at the end of the day? What will last for eternity? Impactful and fruitful means aligning your daily life and agenda to the values and priorities in order to change what you care about most. I’ve started to make real changes, everything from finally taking a Sabbath to reconfiguring my childcare arrangements to truly reprioritizing and living a fruitful life, and I invite you to do so, too!
Consider this: How have you been spending your time? Be truthful with yourself. Have you just been busy, or have you truly been spending your time and energy towards things that “move the needle” the way you want with impact for a life serving God?
Take an inventory of your time, finances, energy, thoughts, and goals. Pray about what tangible changes you can make to live a life you know will count.
Prayer
Father God, please help us take a hard, truthful look at the ways we have been living, and how we’ve been spending our time, resources, finances, and thoughts. Give us full clarity about what You’ve called us to do and what will count towards eternity. Direct our steps to reorder and redesign our life to honor You and provide us the grace, courage, and divine provision to make those changes. Amen.
