How busy are you?

I was reading “The Word for Today” this morning and could really relate to the following article, so I thought I’d pass it on.

"When you’re constantly multi-tasking, important things can fall between the cracks. A lawyer who negotiated an unbelievable deal in favour of his client was asked how he did it. He replied, ‘I was the only person at the meeting that day who didn’t spend the whole time text messaging!’

A respected researcher says we’ve trained our brains ‘to constantly flit around the universe of messages and information, seeking brief hits of excitement. Grazing ceaselessly, we never dig too deeply before moving on to the next distraction... and it ratchets up our stress levels in ways we’re only starting to understand.’

Another expert says: ‘We get more information in 72 hours than our parents received in a month, and most people don’t have the skills to deal with it. They let new things in, but don’t red rid of old information they wanted to act on.’

When was the last time you enjoyed some relaxed, uninterrupted down time? Can you even remember? We’re so results-oriented that unless we’re doing something that can be quantified, we think it’s a waste of time. The fact is you need time away from the unrelenting onslaught of information to regroup, reflect and recharge. Jesus had a schedule to keep, people to minister to, disciples depending on Him, and a short time to do it all. Nevertheless, ‘He withdrew...into the wilderness, and prayed’ Jesus said, ’Come...apart...and rest a while’, because when you don’t come apart, you fall apart!"

The falling apart bit really grabbed my attention. It makes you think about how our lives have changed over the past 10 years or so. We are so much busier now and our computers and mobiles have for some people taken over our lives. I know I’m guilty of spending too much time on the computer. Just checking and answering emails seems to take forever, or I think I’ll just quickly do a bit of research and before I know a couple of hours have vanished, is there such a thing as 'computer time'?

No wonder we have so much stress, if we could just learn to take a step back and put some quite time in our daily schedule we’d all be a lot less stressed and a lot more happier. Now all I have to do is figure out how to do it! Yoga anyone?