Confusing Activity with Accomplishment
Thursday, November 11th, 2010The audio portion of this broadcast is no longer available on-line.
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Send to friendHave you noticed that telling each other how busy we are has become a fairly common mantra for greetings today? “Hi, how are you,” we say. “Oh, busy, really busy. How are you?” comes the reply. “Yeah, me too. Just don’t have enough hours in the day,” we respond. And so it goes.
Busyness is a way of life–and it’s true, we are pretty busy people. But are we confusing activity with accomplishment? Is perpetual motion a substitute for effectiveness? I believe our lifestyles have become so swallowed up with activity that we often don’t even have time to consider if we’re doing anything important or not. As long as we’re moving, we must be okay, right?
Of course, technology has played right into this whole idea of staying busy. We can now communicate so quickly, we no longer have to wait for answers, we can find almost anyone at any time on their cell phone, and the pace of life has shifted into a higher gear than ever before simply because we have this new technology to use. None of us would want to go back to the days of a century ago when life was of necessity much slower because we lacked modern conveniences. But, as is so often the case, we’ve thrown the baby out with the bath water and allowed ourselves to be deceived into thinking we are living productive, meaningful lives when truly we’re just staying busy.
Paul wrote: Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air (1 Corinthians 9:26). Paul understood the difference between looking busy and getting things done.
When I first began my career, I noticed that there seemed to be a competition to see who stayed the latest and worked the most hours. There was some honor accorded to the person who said, “I was here until 10:00 last night,” or “I had to work all weekend.” At first I was impressed and thought that was what I needed to do–work late and long. Then I began to realize that in many situations, they were squeezing eight hours into twelve! The work could have been done in a normal eight-hour day, but in order to appear to be more ambitious and more important, some people stretched it out.
Both as employees and as managers, we need to be careful not to judge accomplishment by activity. And in our own personal lives, we need to discover if we are simply deceiving ourselves into believing that we’re doing the right things simply because we’re busy all the time.
A typical day for many of us would start with rushing off to our jobs, fighting our way through traffic, and then rushing to meet deadlines and get the rush jobs done. We rush and hurry to try to please our managers, who seem to always want everything in a rush. Doesn't it seem as though every job ends up in a last minute rush?
Once we leave the job, we rush to do some necessary shopping, fighting the crowds in the supermarket, and then rush on home where many duties await us and perhaps other family members as well, who are equally rushed with their lives and commitments. So, we rush through our meal, and through the evening activities we've planned, and then we drop into our beds exhausted, to catch a few ZZZ's, so we can be ready to start the rush the next day.
Let me ask you a question: Do you stand in front of your microwave and say, "Come on, hurry up!"? Bet you do! We live in that kind of world where everything's built for speed and what was fast yesterday seems slow today.
Psychiatrist C. G. Jung once remarked, "Hurry is not of the Devil; it is the Devil." I have to stop and ask myself how much of my rushing is necessary, and how much of it is out of control and unnecessary?
As a Christian I'm learning that I have to fight back at this world system, whose message is that activity equals significance, busyness equals meaningful, rushed equals productive. We find ourselves evaluating people by the "rush factor": The busier you are, the more important and successful you must be!
And in the midst of all that rush, the Bible says to us: "Be still and know that I am God." Christians, of all people, should not live out of control, constantly in frantic mode, always rushed. When we let the world pour us into that mold, we easily lose our uniqueness and look just like everyone else around us. What we need today is more Christians in the midst of this hurry-up society who demonstrate that Christ brings order into the chaos, meaning into the mundane, and tranquility into the frazzled fray.
I’m convinced that frequently I confuse activity with accomplishment, how about you? If I go home at the end of the day tired because I’ve been going all day, I have a sense of a day well spent. And yet, if that day was not spent in meaningful activity, activity which makes a difference, then I’ve simply confused activity with accomplishment.
I'm quite certain many of you have similar tendencies. How do we as Christians keep from being swallowed up in this rush mentality? I am convinced that one of our greatest witnessing tools to the generation in which we live is a peaceful, meaningful, centered lifestyle.
Believe me, people all around you are rushing and hurrying to try to find meaning in their lives. They're staying busy to fill up the empty spaces inside of them. And they recognize peaceful and tranquil when they see it. It is attractive; it is what they're looking for. How often do they see it in your life?
I've told this story before, but it bears repeating. Janet is a Board member here at The Christian Working Woman. She accepted Christ some years ago, and the thing that brought her to that point of acceptance was the tranquility of one of her co-workers.
She has a PhD in Immunology as well as a law degree, and at that time worked in a very rushed and hectic scientific lab. She said the atmosphere of that lab was frantic all the time. The deadlines and demands were very stressful, and so, rushing was the order of every day.
But in the midst of all this, she noticed one man who did his work as well as the rest of them, who was as smart as everyone else, but somehow in the midst of that chaotic environment, he never seemed rushed or frantic.
After observing him for a long time, she finally said to him one day, "Jim, how can you be so calm in this job?" And he shared his faith in Christ with her, and encouraged her to start reading the Bible. After three months of intensively searching Scripture, Janet accepted Christ and her husband followed shortly thereafter. Their lives have been totally changed since then, and it began by observing one Christian who was not rushed like everyone else.
We need Christians in this rushed and hectic world demonstrating the peace and tranquility of Jesus Christ. How are you doing in that department?
Are you confusing activity with accomplishment? Jesus instructed us to, Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment (John 7:24). We have to learn how to distinguish, in ourselves and those who work with us or for us, the difference between activity and accomplishment. Accomplishment requires some activity, for sure, but activity does not always indicate that anything worthwhile is being accomplished.
Steve Marr points out three groups of people who look good, but do not deliver:
#1 – The Boasters
These are the people who talk a good game. They have grand plans and can be very convincing in talking about all they are going to do. But if you ask them what they have done, you’ll get a different story. Proverbs 14:23 says, All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. So, don’t be fooled by the person who boasts a lot. And watch yourself. It’s a lot smarter to wait until you’ve achieved your goal to talk about it, than to set yourself up for embarrassment and ridicule by talking and not doing.
#2 – The Movers
These are people who are always busy, always moving, but never seem to get the job done. Often these people have very poor work habits. They start and stop a lot, they don’t stay focused very well, they don’t organize their activities or plan their priorities. So, they just keep moving, keep talking about how busy they are, but they accomplish little. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that they should, run in such a way as to get the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24). Running–or moving and keeping busy–is only effective if we do it in such a way that we get the prize, and that prize is to please the Lord with meaningful accomplishments.
#3 – The Non-Finishers
These are the people who start strong, with a burst of energy, but never seem to get to the finish line. They have lots of half-finished jobs. They lack the discipline to stay with it until it’s done. I know how easy it is for me to fall into this trap, because my attention span seems to be very short. Therefore, I have learned to impose discipline on myself in order to force myself to finish one job before I start another one. Ecclesiastes 7:8 says, The end of a matter is better than its beginning. If you tend to fall into the non-finishers category too often, train yourself to finish one thing before you start another.
I believe it’s important for us to ask ourselves: Am I confusing activity with accomplishment? Have you been deceived into thinking that because you’re always so busy, you’re doing what you should be doing?
Maybe some of us need to start a Not-To-Do list. One reason we Christians find ourselves rushed all the time with our lives running out of control is because we don't give the highest priority to eternal things. We allow earthly, temporal things and issues to occupy our time.
That's so easy to do. After all, we can see and touch and feel those temporary earthly things all around us, and eternal things are not as easily discerned. In addition, the earthly things scream at us with deadlines and urgency, and the eternal things–the really important things–are quieter and less squeaky. So, we can put them on the backburner real easy.
How much time in your life is devoted to the Word of God and prayer? I've said it so often before, but it needs to be repeated: Until time with God and pursuing a knowledge of God is our highest priority, we will always feel as though our lives are out of control, for indeed they are. The Word of God is our touchstone, the guiding focus which can keep us on track, the calming influence which gives us peace and purpose. If you're neglecting the Word of God and prayer, don't be surprised to discover that you're always rushed and hassled.
Oh, how we need to be focused on things of eternal value. When our eyes are fixed on Jesus, it's amazing how much calm and peace enters our minds and hearts, and our life-styles. When I face a day that's looking out of control, that quiet time in God's Word will always give me the calmness of soul which keeps me from being frantic and rushed. Without it, I'm just like everyone else, rushing and hurrying and feeling pressurized.
