Olive Crest United Methodist Church
7180 North 60th Street
Omaha, Nebraska 68152

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Rev. Debra Tompsett-Welch

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The Spiritual Life

August 2003

Being Too Busy As An Injustice Toward God; Or struggling to be with a loved one while working for that loved one.

By Rev. Michael Lee Burgess

Well this last month has been a bit stressful. First came Vacation Bible School, and my counseling and pre-marriage counseling load picked up. Then there was some crisis work toward getting the Elkhorn house ready to be painted etc. (The City of Elkhorn threatened to condemn it as a fire hazard it if we didn't get going. Actually I think a land speculator wanted to get if for cheap and had a friend in the city. We are making progress but have a way to go.) Then Gabrielle suffered through a week of Strep Throat that slowed us down. This is often defined as a stressful environment. One of the side effects of trying to get that much stuff done in a short time is we loose a lot of courtesy and human contact that makes life flow like God wants it to.

The sad thing is not that it happened to me, it is that it is happening to everyone and more often that it used to. As a census data shows for the area east of the church (tract 63.01) from 60th to 48th and from King ST (a bit north of Girard and the church) to Hartman, the Median family income in 1970, adjust to 2000 dollars was $51,115 while in 2000 it was $40,583 and that is with both parents working. It is not so bad in tract 65.06, which is 60th to 72nd , south of Sorenson to Fort. In 1970 adjusted dollars median family income was $51,818, while in 2000 it is $50,403. But again that is with 76% of all parents both working and 3% unemployment (and that was in the good years with high employment.) We also work longer. The typical American in 2000 worked 184 hours longer each year than in 1970.

To make is more disturbing 2.2 million jobs have been lost in the past two years, mainly from the bottom four-fifths of the poorer parts of our economy. This means that a lot more people are feeling stressed for economic reasons and that makes it harder for them to be good parents, good friends, good neighbors, and work at building the kingdom of God because they have lost that connection of spending time with each other and time with God. It is hard to spend time in the inner silence with God when the world is yelling in your ear. It is also critical for survival.

God cares about our inner survival, who we are as individuals and how we relate to each other. I looked at this in depth in my Vacation Bible School class when I started it by having us all do a word study of how the Bible uses the word Justice.

"The practice of what is right and just. Justice specifies what is right, not only as measured by a code of law, but also by what make for right relationships as well as harmony and peace.

The English term "justice" has a strong legal flavor. But the concept of justice in the Bible goes beyond the law courts to everyday life. The Bible speaks of "doing justice" whereas we speak of "getting justice." Doing justice is to maintain what is right or to set things right. Justice is done when honorable relations are maintained between husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, government and citizens, and human beings and God. Justice refers to neighborliness in spirit and action." (Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, 1997)

So when I got so crazy busy this last month I did an In-Justice to myself and those around me when I was rushed, brusque, and didn't listen. I'm not certain quite how to fix that, but I have not been "Just" before God. What is even more painful is that it seems our whole nation is in the grip of this squeeze of economic pressures and painful anxiety. And this anxiousness is driving us into unjust relations between ourselves, our neighbors, the rest of the world and God.

Well what do I do when I find that I have wandered away from God, that I have let a "sin" (an archery word meaning 'to miss the target' or a mistake) become a barrier between me and my love relationship with God? Well first I acknowledge that there is a problem, we sometimes call that confession. Second I try to do something to make the relationship better or "right". In any relationship that means spending some time thinking about my relationship (you work on relationships by yourself, you work on yourself in relationship). Then when I have thought of what I am doing verses what I would like to do, I try my new behavior and attitude out with my loved one. In my case, that meant more time in prayer, reflection and a bit of journaling. I also discovered I needed to spend some time being creative and writing to make it easier for God to talk to me. "Well," you tell me, "That's all very nice Rev. Michael, But I didn't have time before, and now you are telling me to do things that take more time?"

I know that problem. I haven't gotten enough sleep any day this week. But I also know that love relationships die if you don't spend time nourishing them. God is not going to leave me, but I can leave God. Also I will discover that I am leaving myself. Another description of that is depression. Vast numbers of Americans, our brothers and sisters are suffering from low-level depression all the time, and that robs them of energy and the ability to make use of the time they have. So if I am going to survive and not get constantly sick, I have to do something to break this cycle of constant business that is steeling me away from God. I also have to get everything done, but where am I going to find the energy to get all that stuff done if I don't have love and God helping me do it?

It is a matter of Justice, or right relationship with myself, my neighbor, and with God. And how Jesus described right relationships was "you shall love...."

May God's Love help you do all the things that are making your life hard in grace filled ways. May you spend enough time with God to be energies to do all your work with some joy instead of dread. May we all remember to treat each other like neighbors so that we have the energy to keep working, and so that we might be "just" before God and one another.

In Shalom, which is peace and justice mixed with love and right relationships.

Your brother-in-Christ

Reverend Michael Lee Burgess

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