The answer to this common formality of the question has some of the most templated answers in the English language.

“Good! But busy.” “Tired, but good!” It’s amazing how many of our answers are some sort of combination of “good” and “busy” as if those two go together like peanut butter and jelly. We wear busyness as a badge of honor. But is it? I guess that depends. After all, I think a more precise word people mean is “hurried.”

Let’s parse this out a bit more.

There is a difference between being hurried and being busy. John Ortberg says it this way:

“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”

Think about what the word “disorder” even means. It is literally when things are out of order. The quality of our life is diminished when we lose the proper order of things. Cosmologists revel at the fine tuning and order we find in the universe. What would happen if the universe became disordered overnight? Our cosmos would become a chaos and all life would cease to be! That’s how important order is… our very existence depends on order. Disorder is no joking matter! Yet, often we try to learn to cope with our disordered lives instead of having a severe wake-up call to re-order them so that we can thrive again.

The solution isn’t to stop, the solution is to simplify. So, what does it mean to simplify? It means putting our focus on the right things instead of just on more things. Part of the work of the gospel in our lives, according to Paul, is that the light of Christ “produces only what is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:9). God’s values will always follow suit with what is good, right, and true. When Paul is speaking of what pleases the Lord (verse 10), he is not simply saying what makes God happy. He is saying what God is truly looking for and what He values. Spoiler alert: Living hurried and disordered lives isn’t it!