Tag: Busyness

Links for the Weekend (2025-10-24)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

What is Your Busyness Doing?

Many of us feel too busy. But, as Alan Noble explains, some forms of busyness can have seriously negative spiritual consequences.

It seems to me that busyness is deceptive. It often starts out virtuous, a courageous effort to manage the daily affairs of your life for the sake of your loved ones and to honor God—in the model of the ant. But the rhythms of hustle can overtake you. They can be seductive. There is a numbness that sets in when you are busy. Your mind is preoccupied with obligations and must-do’s and planning for the future so that sins, conflicts, problems, and issues in your life that aren’t directly related to your busyness get submerged, ignored. What started out virtuous seems to take up more and more space in your consciousness. You begin answering emails at all hours of the day. You check your phone constantly. You feel the need to stay “plugged in.” You feel uncomfortable when you aren’t actively doing something “productive.” This is acedia. And it’s tied to the refusal to believe that God is sovereign over all creation.

Who Are the Righteous Mentioned Throughout the Psalms?

Admit it—you’ve wondered who the Psalms are referring to when they mention “the righteous.” Christopher Ash is here to help.

First, we struggle to know what to make of it when psalmists claim to be righteous, sometimes in quite strong terms. For example, the prayer “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness / and according to the integrity that is in me” (Ps. 7:8) rather alarms us. What if the Lord did judge me according to my righteousness? He would find it severely wanting. Dare I pray this?

In an Artist’s Studio

Our poem of the week: In an Artist’s Studio, by Christina Rossetti. This is a sonnet about an artist and his love/subject.

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here. 

How to Prevent a Spiritually Dry December

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can be busy. Not only is the calendar full, but there’s a lot to do around the house. There are gifts to wrap, cards to send, and decorations to hang.

Busy days mean our schedules get squeezed. Work and school hours don’t change, so this means there’s a competition for our time at the margins. And, if you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you know that devotional time is often a casualty in this battle.

I can fool myself into thinking the Christmas season will be richer with more decorations, more social gatherings, and watching more beloved Christmas movies. That the key to Christmas joy is more memories and experiences.

While there’s nothing wrong with any of these seasonal extras, here’s the truth I tend to miss. My experience of Christmas will be far deeper and more joyful if I’m connecting my activities to the Biblical truths of Christmas.

The Point of Bible Study

With that said, there is still the stark reality of time. I just seem to have less of it in December. Should I feel guilty that I’m not spending as much time with God during that month?

To answer this question we need to remember why we read the Bible—or why we engage in any of the spiritual disciplines. We don’t read the Bible to impress God. We don’t pray to feel spiritually healthy. We don’t fast to check a box.

No. Our spiritual practices must be rooted in God’s love for us and aimed at growing in love for him. Even as new creatures with the indwelling Holy Spirit, the old man still fights among our members, tearing our attention and our affections away from God. Our Bible study and prayer and giving—all of it—is designed to remind us of the truth and to help us live in harmony with it.

So, with regard to a busy December, we shouldn’t ask, How often must I read my Bible? Instead, we should ask, How can I enflame my affections for God around the Incarnation?

Focus on Bible Intake

Since the normal rhythms of life can be disrupted during busy seasons, don’t hold yourself to an impossible standard. Some days may allow your usual devotional time with God; other days may not. Instead of having the same goals for each day, I’d encourage you to focus on consistent Bible intake.

Bible intake refers to all the different ways we come into contact with the Bible. We can read it, study it, listen to it, memorize it, meditate on it, hear it preached, or sing it.

Here are some suggestions on how to maintain consistent Bible intake during a busy December.

  • Start a plan for Bible study or Bible reading for Advent.
  • Memorize part of the Bible related to the Christmas story. Some suggestions: John 1:1–18, Luke 2:1–21, Matthew 1:18–25.
  • Find a good Advent Bible reading guide and work through it as a family every morning or evening.
  • Pick ten favorite Christmas hymns. Sing one each night as a family and read the Bible text most relevant to the words of the hymn.
  • Listen to the Bible as you exercise or on your commute. Focus on the parts of the Bible that discuss the Incarnation.

Joy to the World

December may be busy, but it doesn’t have to leave you ragged and dry. With some planning and some shifts in your own expectations, you can draw near to God for Christmas as you celebrate the way he drew near to you.

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Links for the Weekend (2023-04-14)

Posted onAuthorRyan Higginbottom

Each Friday, I’ll post links to 3–5 resources from around the web you may want to check out.

3 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection

Believing in the Resurrection might not be as absurd as some would want you to think!

Here are three features of our world that are already Easter-like. They already have a life-from-the-dead shape to them. I don’t offer these as watertight proofs of God. But I do raise them as suggestive pointers.

Humility and Overcommitted Busyness

I’m not sure I’ve connected busyness with a lack of humility before. This article might spark some good questions to ask yourself!

At first glance, the pathological busyness of our day seems disconnected from questions of humility, but it is precisely in caving to the pressure to be endlessly doing that our humility is most frequently vanquished. This often happens without a fight or even an awareness that we ought to be battling the temptation to arrogate to ourselves more activity than the Lord has handed us. Whether working on a job or a home, spending an evening with friends, or even attending to our spiritual growth, we so often live as if we could and should do more than we can and are called to.

What do you do when you are spiritually dry?

There’s some bracing common sense in this article. We need to hear it because we often do the opposite!

There are so many things that can be done, but I want to give one piece of advice with two practical applications for those who feel spiritually dry: Don’t stop going to the fountain. Often when we feel dry, we are tempted to neglect the one thing that will satisfy our souls. Think about it: When you feel dry, what things do you want to toss out? Bible reading, prayer, fellowship. But this is the problem. If you are dry, spiritually thirsty, the worst thing you can do is go to the desert! You need to go to the fountain!

Note: Washington Presbyterian Church and the editors of this blog do not necessarily endorse all content produced by the individuals or groups referenced here.