Idolatry of Busyness: Through the Eyes of Romans

By Jaclyn Zahn

There is a mass epidemic happening right now in Christian livesthe idolatry of busyness. The well-veiled contagious compulsion to be busy is replacing God as the Father and making oneself into an idol.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you find yourself complaining about being busy all the time?

Does your busyness prevent personal time with God?

Are you struggling to keep up with everyday life?

Do you see busyness as a status symbol of success?

Idolatry of Busyness: Through the Eyes of Romans applies a lens of busyness using Pauls principal teachings in the book of Romans. It focuses on such topics as

assessing what modern-day idolatry looks like,

identifying righteous, and

learning how to overcome busyness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512776089

Jaclyn Zahn

Jaclyn Zahn started out her adult life as a social studies middle school teacher in Colorado. Not long after she began teaching, she decided she didn’t like the repetitiveness of the teaching profession, so she opted to leave it. At that point, she attended St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. US News and World Report ranked St. Edward’s University as one of the ten best colleges in the West; it has a wonderful post-bachelor’s degree program in counseling. After graduating with the highest of honors, Jaclyn gained accreditation as a licensed professional counselor. Shortly after obtaining her master’s degree, she devoted herself to Christ. In search of her new identity in Christ, she spent an intense nine months under the discipleship of Rev. Linda Chandler, from whom she learned what it truly means to follow Christ. From this point on, she married a supportive husband and had two wonderful children. She has moved quite a bit in the last decade, living in such varied places such as Houston, Japan, and currently the Middle East. An avid traveler, she has visited over eighteen countries in the past five years.

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Scripture quotations marked GNT are taken from the Good News Translation — Second Edition. Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 byThe Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV). Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7607-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7609-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7608-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017902396

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/22/2017

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Righteous Relationship

Chapter 2 Modern-Day Idolatry

Chapter 3 Justified

Chapter 4 The Path

Chapter 5 Life in Christ

Chapter 6 The Flesh

Chapter 7 Solitude and Silence

Chapter 8 The Resolver

Chapter 9 The Promise

Chapter 10 Love So Deep

Chapter 11 Ordinance of Authority

Chapter 12 Every Knee Shall Bow

Chapter 13 Encouragement

Notes

Endnotes

About the Author

Dedication

To my husband. Floyd, for not only supporting me but also encouraging me to write. This book wouldn’t be possible without your love. Additionally, to my children, Elizabeth and Andrew, who have been infinitely excited to see the book get published and are already telling me to write more. It takes a village to make dreams come true.

Preface

Moving to the Middle East would be a sociologist’s dream come true. As for a therapist, I have watched how people and families move into the microcosm of living in a compound. I have observed firsthand how individuals first come and desperately try to find a place of belonging. The first few months are extremely difficult because of the inability to drive, the lack of school admissions, and the overall desperation of trying to figure out everyday life. The beginning is isolating, scary, and full of drudgery. As individuals gain independence, meet new friends, and see their lot in life, the busyness begins in an instant. The time it takes an individual to go from being completely bored to being overwhelmingly too busy happens at an accelerated speed. It is at this point that you hear only from individuals complaining about being too busy.

My premise is that the overarching theme of being too busy in everyday life is happening not just in one part of the world but everywhere. Our culture has become one in which society applauds and admires being busy. It is my contention that busyness has become one of today’s biggest veiled idols in Christian lives. The idolatry of busyness is separating us from God’s love and perfect will for us. The sad truth is that the idolatry of busyness is so well hidden, most Christians don’t even realize its epidemic proportion and resulting consequences.

Introduction

Are you running a race around the game board? Constantly running from one square to the next to gain money, fame, and houses? Your mantra is more is better. As you run around, collecting money, you start slowly feeling depleted; you can’t keep up with all you have worked for and don’t enjoy what you have. Just as feel you can’t do any more, you try even harder to obtain your ultimate happiness. More can fit in the schedule, you think; if you could just add that one thing, you will finally be happy. If you just get to that one point, you will stop and enjoy the busyness of all you have created, only you stumble and end up in proverbial jail. But why? You are doing your best to create all you want in life. But it’s just never enough; no matter what you try, it is never enough mentally, physically, and spiritually.

What you failed to realize is that in the third round of the game, you traded your God card for a busy card. You traded in God for achieving personal ambition and seeking self-happiness. At that point the God card got put aside because you became too busy and unremittingly said that if you could just get through the day, the week, and the month, you would get with God and reconnect. If you could just finish this busy period in life, you would fall back in line with God.

But somehow, someway, busyness kept taking priority, and you kept telling God to wait just a little longer. And before you knew it, you were lost in a sea of game cards, going around and around. You felt as though you were being squeezed to death, that if you went to proverbial jail, you would feel relieved, because maybe, just maybe, you could sit still for a minute. If you could just get a minute to figure things out, all would be fine.

The truth is, the second you traded God in, you instantly lost the game. The only hope is to fold up the game board and throw it away. The people who lose the game of life are those who think there is a game. Our God is a sovereign God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. When we think we can maneuver the middle of our life’s and still end up in the same place, we have been deceived. Our God is a loving and jealous God. The second we take life into our own hands, we grieve Him. So earnestly take this book to heart and prioritize God to be the center of your life.

Chapter 1

Righteous Relationship

The Book of Romans

The book of Romans is a well-constructed letter by the apostle Paul. The writing serves to support the modeling of his understanding of Christian faith and its everyday applications for Christians’ daily lives. Paul constructed the letter in an arrangement of detailed dogma to set up a framework for a visit he planned to make to the church in Rome.

The overlying theme is to make it known that we ought to serve God wholeheartedly as disciples of Christ. Paul had been longing to go to Rome, but up to this point, he’s had many failed attempts to visit. Paul didn’t want to visit the church to exclusively comfort them; rather, he hoped that in return they could comfort him. He sought time to be strengthened by their faith. In return, both Paul and the church could be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith and impart spiritual gifts.

Paul set the foundation at the beginning of his letter to the church in Romans 1:17 (GNT): The gospel reveals how God puts people right with himself: it is through faith from beginning to end. To support his theme, he built on the need for all Jews and Gentiles to be right with God. In this particular book, the gospel of Romans was applied