Busy, busy, busy

by Ong Suat Ngoh

 

"I'm very busy…"
"My life is a whirl of activities… I'm tired."
"I'm too busy, I have no time…"
Are you busy? What are you busy doing? Are you always saying these words?

 

One evening, my brother and I were with my father in the hospital. Suddenly we got a call telling us my cousin had been admitted to hospital and was brain dead. This was hard to believe. In the ICU, all my cousin's relatives and friends were crying their hearts out. It was hard to accept that this 38-year-old lady had left her loved ones without saying a single word.

 

I was saddened by her death. My mother's family members had tried sharing the gospel with my second aunt's family but this cousin told an uncle: "Believing in Jesus is not for me, let's talk about this next time." Now there's no more next time. Who would have thought she would pass away at such a young age? I think even she herself did not expect it!

 

The night my cousin died, I looked at her lying in the coffin and all sorts of feelings welled up in my heart: pain and regret and anger. It was hard to be reconciled to her death. What grieved me most and what I regretted most was that we can't sing with hope, "We will meet in that beautiful land." She is apart from us and it's hard for me to take that.

 

My cousin had been exhausted and under a lot of stress. She held three jobs, and even worked part-time on weekends. She literally worked herself to death. The Bible teaches clearly: "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?" My cousin's death illustrates this truth. She was busy earning money in order to lead a more comfortable life. She and her husband had just bought a semi-detached house. They collected the keys to their house the day before the incident, and she and her husband and children were happily planning to move in. Now, she won't get to enjoy life. What is the purpose of our being so busy?

 

This makes me think further: most of the time, we are busy, and there are even people who have no time to stop and catch their breaths. What are we actually busy for? "Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless. What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?" (Eccl 1:2-3). "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15).

 

Since life is so fleeting, it's foolish of us to think that we are in control and that we are lord of our lives, and God is the guest. It's equally foolish to think that life's purpose is to enjoy material things. Unless we invest our lives in things of eternal value, our hard work is in vain. There are many things that can't be done after we have ceased being busy. Even if we slave for the rest of our lives, we may not be able to regain the things we have lost. All that is left is regret. Let us ask God to teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom in order to know how to manage our lives.