Why So Busy?Намуна

People-pleasing

How do so many of us end up constantly busy? How does an unsustainable pace become the normal we live with? Your answer might be people-pleasing.

The church needs volunteers, your sister asks you to babysit, the boss wants you to work overtime, your friend texts about using your truck, your grandkids beg for your homemade cookies, and . . .

It’s hard to say no. “No” stings. “No” feels like sin, like selfishness, like something our selfless Jesus would never say. Thus, believing we have to say yes, we (over)commit. Again.

King Solomon urged us to avoid such extreme thinking and balance our lives: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV). Overcommitting to one thing (like helping people) means there’s no time for “everything” (like rest, recovery, and pondering God’s Word).

So how do you break free from the shriek of people-pleasing that fills your head? The gospel. The good news of a God who is pleased with you, who approves of you, who smiles when he sees you. Your heart aches for approval, and you already have it through Jesus. If you need to make everyone happy, you will never stop working and will never actually get unanimous approval (just ask Jesus), but if you have Jesus, you have the approval that matters, the kind that comes from God.

Rest in the gospel today. It will allow you to serve others and then sit down, which is greatly pleasing to our Father in heaven.