Why are we all so busy?
Hi my name is David Luschwitz and I am a typical Gen Y living in 2014 industrial Sydney, married with a secure job and I'm in tip top physical condition. I'm heavily involved in church where my wife and I lead and serve faithfully every Sunday night. We also run a Bible study twice a month out of our apartment, something we are both completely nuts about. We love it!
In our spare time we're never far from salt water. The beach is always within reach. You know what I'm sayin'? Our best free days are the ones where we have breakfast at one hipster café, lunch somewhere with a view or a menu with an edge and dinner with some pazaz! A good red if the occasion lends itself.
My wife and I both study part-time. Priscila is interested in philanthropy and I'm trying to increase my knowledge and appreciation of the Bible and ministry. Oh yeah, and we've only been married three months. In that time we've sold and bought a car, started up a website, stepped it up with volunteering at church, attended further education workshops and are well on our way to planning a short trip overseas at the end of the year.
Productive? No doubt! Interested in that life? I bet you are! Don't mistake my surety as arrogance. The statistics speak for themselves. In September 2014, The McCrindle Blog published an article about Gen Y-ers, stating that over a third of Australian men, 34.9% to be exact, say that they always or often feel rushed or pressed for time. Four out of five fathers are currently in the work force and 46% of those guys also volunteer. (These stats also care of The McCrindle Blog.)
Maybe you don't trust McCrindle! Well last month the Sydney Morning Herald published stats indicating the average Gen Y-er in Sydney has completed at least one Degree, (I say at least one because it's become very common to have more than one level of qualification under your belt. Just look at what the employers are asking for these days) completed many hours of volunteer work and juggled part-time work and personal interest projects each day just to pay off their HECS debt as quickly as possible and have some money left over for the weekend.
This morning I drove my gorgeous wife, Priscila to work. She's an athlete when it comes to keeping herself busy! We were able to leave a little bit later than the usual 7.15am because she had to catch up with the specialist. She's got Glandular Fever. Now back up a bit. Did I say she wasn't working today? No. I said we were leaving later than usual. So yes, my wife went to work after we cruised in and out of the doctor's surgery and had a bite to eat.
Why?
Now hold up because I can hear all the Baby-Boomers lifting the roof yelling, 'Why!' Well that's why they call us Y. Our thinking is on a different trajectory. My wife, like many others our age, is suffering from the predilection that she is irreplaceable at work... this idea that it's unproductive to stop. It's kind of like pulling the teaspoon out of that hipster cappuccino with the perfect froth and the petal manoeuvred into the top. Yeah you've just put in the sugar.
Maybe you're like me and you sit it there and watch the gravity pull it through the froth and into the coffee itself. You give it a stir and you pull out that spoon and what happens? The milk covers back over, coffee art recomplete. It is like the sugar was in there all along. No evidence of a spoon. Sugar-spoon Anxiety, the fear of the milk covering back over without even a trace of your efforts. No one likes feeling untraceable.
But in reality just stopping could be a whole lot more productive than we have ever really considered. If you type 'importance of rest' into Google, all that comes up is a bunch of exercise programs and how crucial rest is to 'muscle growth' and 'body recovery.' Well I have a feeling we're way more on top of that than we are our spiritual growth and our psychological recovery.
Stressing ourselves out
We're trying to achieve big things, but in truth we're stressing ourselves out. It's taking its toll physically, spiritually and socially and we're just moving too quickly to notice. I'm a High School English Teacher and I will return to work next week after two weeks of holidays. I spent much of last week sneezing til my eyes watered. Our bodies have a tendency to 'catch up' when we're relaxed. Why don't I get the cold when I'm slugging it out for ten weeks a term? I'm too busy. Not even my body is in pace with itself when my To Do List is 12 items strong!
It's when we stop that things settle and our bodies realise, 'hang on I need a service!' When I was seventeen in the lead-up to the Higher School Certificate I began running for an hour every day and then I'd study until I fell asleep at the dinner table. I did this for about six months. During Stu-vac I lost twelve kilograms. What am I trying to say here? It's when you rest, that things happen.
But I don't want to get sick when I stop! Well stop more often. It's like training at a gym. Go once every three weeks and every fourth week you'll be tight as a Ben Hardy t-shirt, but go three times a week, and stretch, and you'll find that you'll limber right up. We have to incorporate more rest!
In our Pre-Marriage course our facilitator drew a box on the board. To the right he drew some circles, then some smaller ones and then some even smaller ones. He called them rocks, pebbles and sand respectively. We were asked which we felt needed to go into the box first in order that they all might fit. The whole class pointed at the sand. Being the smallest it seemed the most logical that it went in first. Maybe you know already but it's the rocks that need to go into the box first. With them in, both the pebbles and the sand will drizzle through to fill the container.
The illustration represents our lives and our way of thinking. When did we become so preoccupied with the smaller things in life? Sayings like, 'it's the little things that count!' Yes, but in reality it's the big things that matter most. Health, happiness, love, faith, security... These are the things that we need to prioritise.
In my holidays I've found myself dumbfounded with exactly how good I am at being productive and how hopeless I am at resting. In the back of my mind however I know that I will never enter into the grace in front of me unless I acknowledge that I need to stop and take care of my rocks first and foremost and rest knowing I've tackled the big things!
So I'm going to stop adding the little annotations to my To Do List and I'm going to rest. That's what I'm going to do.
After I wash the car.
David Luschwitz is from Zetland, Sydney and is passionate about equipping people to "Renew their Minds, Revive their Spirit and Reclaim their Lives."
Check out the vision and mission statement at www.davidluschwitz.com.
David Luschwitz' previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/david-luschwitz.html