Busyness or Fullness

Psalm 16:11 You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is the fullness of joy; in Your right hand their are pleasures forever.  

Happy New Year, friends and family!

So, does anyone else feel like they just blinked and 2010 was over?  It's funny when your younger you can't wait to be older and time just seems to creep by.  Once your older life just seems to fly by.  We're such busy people.  But do we just have busy lives or are we full?

I had the awesome blessing of leading a women's bible study these past few months.  We finished up a few weeks ago.  My life is more rich through the friendships that have just formed through this group of women, I'm excited to continue to grow along side of each of them.  I learned so much from each of them and treasure the many discussions we had. 

One week I gave out "homework"  for us to assess our weekly schedules to look at what we had going on that takes up our time (stuff on the schedule and off the schedule-ex. working out, tv, etc).  God was challenging me to assess my own schedule before this by bringing to my attention how many times I would tell people "I'm so busy" or some variation of that.  God has continued asking me, "Do you want busyness of life or fullness of life?" 

There is a huge difference between busyness and fullness. Fullness is God-focused and busyness is self-focused.  Busyness results in burn out because we're looking for fulfillment or validation of our importance in the activities we're involved in.  Busyness for some reason makes us feel like we're important, the more busy I am the more important I am.  It causes us to look to ourselves, others, and our performance to determine our value and our impact.  Fullness, however, is only found in Christ, and its results are joy.  Fullness can only be found in God's presence.  Am I lingering in His presence each day or rushing through it, just another "to do" marked off on the list?

Lord, I desire the fullness of life and joy that can only be found in Your Presence.  I confess that many times I rush into and out of spending time with you to mark it off of my "to do" list for the day.  I've looked for significance in the things I do and accomplish, instead of in You.  Sanctify my schedule.  Although many things may be good, what is the best, what leads me to You?  Help me to prioritize the things that draw me closer to You.