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Liberation from the Bondage of Busyness

By Diane-Ellen McCarron

Busyness seems to be an epidemic sickness in the American culture. Thirty years ago, our family lived in Bristol, England, which was called a “walking city.” Most people, including our family, either walked to destinations or took public transportation. Using a car was a last resort. Bristol was also considered a walking city because it had a slower pace than a larger city such as London. Stores closed by dinnertime and some even closed at lunchtime for one to two hours before reopening again for the afternoon. Friends would walk to one another’s houses to informally visit and chat. Sometimes these visits were planned and at other times they would be unannounced. Usually visits were enthusiastically received and enjoyed by both parties. Agendas and plans were put aside temporarily to enjoy friendship and camaraderie; any temporary inconvenience became secondary.

In the healing stories in the gospel of Luke, Jesus calmed a storm, healed the Gerasene demoniac and then, finally, Jesus and his disciples arrived home again. Just then, Jesus was summoned by a man named “Jairus, a leader of the synagogue who fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, who was dying.” (Luke 8:41-42) Despite weariness and hopes for rest, Jesus went to the house of Jairus and returned the dead girl to life again.

Similarly, Jesus healed others who requested healing. In the synagogue on the Sabbath, there was a crippled woman who was incapable of standing erect; Jesus healed her and set her free after 18 years of bondage to sickness. (See Luke 13:10-12)

The response of the Pharisees was oppositional because they were stiffly abiding by the law that stated work on the Sabbath was prohibited. The Pharisees put the letter of the law before the wonder and action of God’s healing love that commemorated their freedom from Egyptian bondage during the Exodus. (Deuteronomy 5:15) The Pharisees, instead, chose to reenact this bondage.

The last few years, I have been a caregiver for my elderly parents. (Dad died last year and Mom has advanced Alzheimer’s disease.) I have frequently been present in care facilities and hospitals. During these recent years, many medical emergencies have occurred. Healthcare workers at both the nursing home where my Mom is now a resident and in the hospitals try hard to meet the demands of their profession, which include numerous written reports, evaluative checklists and paper trails. Most of the workers seem overworked and impatient with interruptions that divert them from expected routines and agendas.

Recently, Mom went into the hospital from the nursing home located in a New York suburb for yet another emergency. I was visiting a friend in Florida for a well-needed, four-day break when this latest emergency happened. On the evening of the second day, I received the dreaded phone call that Mom was on her way by ambulance to the emergency room. A strike of panic rushed through every cell of my body. I blamed myself for not being with her at this suffering time, even though I had been there for all her other emergencies. Heart pounding, I called the emergency room long distance over and over to request some information about Mom’s condition. Mom’s attending nurse would not answer her page. After a few hours, finally, she answered the phone. Relieved to speak with her, I expressed my concern. Without any other explanation, she replied, “I am too busy to talk to you.” Then she hung up. My heart sank at such a heartless reply. Just a few words would have given me the information I needed, but this courtesy was not extended.

I am not foreign to this epidemic sickness of busyness. I was an educator for nearly 30 years, a working mother and a teacher. I was often frustrated trying to meet the needs of the students, which became secondary to the demands of standardized test results, an uncreative, programmed education and excessive paperwork, especially in the latter part of my career. I often was part of the very “rat race” that kept me from really serving my students needs as well as my own as a dedicated educator. Even in semi-retirement, I am aware of how easily I can be pulled in. Young mothers today seem to be sucked into a similar whirlwind of activity which includes enrolling their children in numerous programmed activities, shuttling to and fro and urging their children to compete and accomplish relentlessly.

Time and time again, I ask myself, “How can I help build God’s kingdom here on Earth and how might I participate in the “better way?”

For one, I can empower myself and stop the cycle of epidemic busyness. I can make more life-giving choices. In this way, I can add light to the world instead of contributing to its diminishment. Fired by Spirit, Jesus always chose the way of love, which often was not convenient or efficient by conventional cultural standards.

I can live more reflectively and remember that by “loving my neighbor as myself,” I am birthing the Christ within me into our world. Over and over, Jesus demonstrates the “better way” just as Mary of Bethany did as she sat at the feet of Jesus to listen, to show her love and to let his love swell through her and spill over her onto others.

Every time I become aware of breaking the cycle of busyness and living with a more pondering, precious awareness of God’s love, I am worshiping in Sabbath moments, living a life that actively contributes more love to the world and celebrates the liberation of God’s people. At these times, I am listening to that still, small voice within and I can rejoice with Jesus.

May I recall those days in England when people revered one another with precious presence and lived a slower pace in which plans and agendas were secondary. Allow me to more actively bring loving choices into the present. And may we all likewise examine our busy lives and, like Jesus, choose “the better way” by being love in the world.

Diane-Ellen McCarron is an attender at Poughkeepsie Friends Meeting, New York. Her watercolor paintings have been on previous covers of Quaker Life magazine.