I’m So Busy I Don’t Have Time For God – High School Column

Editor’s Note: Today’s High School Column hits really close to my heart. As a recovering perfectionist, the tug on my heart to strive to find my worth is something I struggle with daily. I hope these confessions offer some help. From my heart, – Katie

 This week’s question: With homework, friends, family, and extracurricular activities it’s easy to overextend yourself in high school always trying to be the best [fill in the blank] you can be. God then seems to be placed on the back burner, at least in my own life. Is really all worth it? How do I pull away from all of the things I love and make time for God?

Wow. Such a huge question. This life is so crazy; at any given moment there will always be a thousand plates to keep spinning [and I wish I could tell you that when you solve this in high school it will be solved for life, but your existence in this world will always be complicated by many voices tugging at your being, telling you what to do, what you need, what you should want …]. It’s exhausting. Add to that the crazy journey of figuring out who you are that you ride through high school, college and into your 20s, and those voices seem so much louder than they really are.

You know, in the Psalms there’s this tiny little verse that gets tossed around a lot, and it’s the first one that popped in my head when I read your question. “Let be and be still and know that I am God.” [Psalm 46:10]. Let’s use theses three phrases to walk through your question; Let be, Be still & Know.

Know. I have to remind myself daily that these things are true; our value is intrinsic, built in, and comes only from God. I cannot do anything to add to the value I already have, that’s how perfect and true my value is. Because God created me and named me, sought me and redeemed me, I am enough. It’s easy to get swept away in the current of gotta-be-gotta-do-gotta-be-more. Pursue your gifts, pursue your dreams, but don’t feel like you need to add stuff to your plate in order to prove or feel more valuable than you already are.

One thing I’d encourage you to start asking God know is to show you who you are! Grab a journal and sit with God, ask him about your gifts and passions, about your love languages, about broken places that shape how you see yourself and the world around you. He has things to say to you about all of those topics.

Be still: You ask “how do I pull away from all of the things I love and make time for God?” My encouragement to you is to do everything you can to schedule time with God first thing in your day. Your life will ALWAYS be busy. Instead of “pulling away” from everything on your plate, make room at the beginning of your full-plate day to get quiet before God. I find, for me, that when I’m consistently doing this, it’s easier to sense God throughout my crazy day then when it’s 4pm and I’m still looking for a window of time to go pray, and still getting pulled back into my busy life.

Let be: Probably one of the best pieces of advice I ever got during college came from a good friend and sounded like this; “For the love of God would you please chill out!” To this day I still struggle with trying to do it all and easily get very pent up about not being enough, or having to say {gasp} “no” every once in a while. I love that “Let be” is the first phrase of this verse; it’s like God’s heart for us is saying “Hey hey hey … chill out. Let it go.” It goes back to the Know  part of the verse; God is God, and He’s already spoken your massive, huge, intrinsic, built in value over your life. Let be, be still, and know.

Let be, be still, and know.

Did this answer your question? Why or why not? Do you feel you have different circumstances that make this topic more difficult?