The Martha Malady

Father, thank you for revealing to me the danger of busyness in my life. I don’t want to be faithless, foolish, or feckless. Please show me the extent of my own tendencies to bow to the idol of busyness. Convince and convict me of all ungodliness. I repent; help me to bear fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8).

Help me to truly and wholeheartedly believe in you, and not in myself, my abilities, or my activity. Help me to find significance in you and in my obedience to you, not in the false importance of busyness. Help me to overcome the laziness of letting other people set my schedule for me, and not lazily abdicate the essential work of deciding and directing, establishing values and setting goals.

Finally, Lord, teach me the bane of busyness in my life, and the hurt that hurry does to me, and reward my earliest efforts at overcoming this idol with early rewards, that I might sit at your feet and learn to enjoy the “better things” that come only—and generously—from you, in Jesus’ name, amen.

(the prayer that closes chapter fifteen, "The Martha Malady," in my book, American Idols)