Where does the time go? It’s as if we turned around and spring has suddenly arrived. Spring brings with it a lot of wonderful things such as warmer weather, longer days, and the beauty of the vegetation that has been dormant through winter. Along with these, spring also brings many things for us to do: yard work, spring cleaning, tax season, graduations, planning summer vacations, kids’ activities, etc. It is a busy time of year.

Busyness can certainly be a good thing. It keeps us active. It gives us a purpose and a direction. It can help get our minds off ourselves and to remind us that we are here for a purpose. It makes us feel useful. Not only that, but we may all think of various Scriptures that encourage us to be active and diligent instead of idle and slothful.

Busyness can also be a deterrent to our spiritual growth. Being busy with so many things can keep us from being busy about the right things. It can divert our attention from where it should be focused. We can even intentionally busy ourselves with things to distract us from the most important things. So then we ask the question. As the people of God, where should our attention be focused? What are the important things with which we should be busy?

Jesus gives us the answer to that in Matthew 22. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:35-40)

So, we see it. We are to be busy in loving God and loving others. Sometimes, however, our busyness keeps us from pursuing the love that Jesus commands. What are some things we can do to make sure we are attending well to the things that are most important?

There are a several things that may come to mind that could help move us in the right direction. I would like to suggest two that I believe we find throughout the Bible in which we are instructed to participate: wonder and gratitude.

Scripture is full of passages that speak of the wonder of God. The creation narratives, the flood narrative, the Exodus, all the mighty works of God bring us into a sense of wonder. I think of passages like God’s speech at the end of the book of Job, or passages like Psalm 8 speak to the wonder of God. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beingsand crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:1-9)

Wonder tends to lead to gratitude. When we think of the majesty, the sovereignty, the power, and the holiness of God who also pursues us with unrelenting love, it leads to gratitude. When we consider who God is and what he has done for us in Jesus, we realize our absolute dependence on him and his grace for our very lives.

When I think of these two practices – wonder and gratitude – and the way in which it moves us to love God with all we have and to love others well, I believe I see why God is so adamant that Israel observe the Sabbath. As we read Moses delivering the Law to the people of Israel in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5, we find two reasons given for Israel to keep Sabbath. In Exodus 20 it is to remember God as creator (Exodus 20:8-11). In Deuteronomy 5 it was to remember God as their deliverer (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). There are these two practices – wonder and gratitude. God’s people were to remember the one who created all things, stop striving and wonder at his power and his care, and they were to remember and give thanks for his redemption.

Do we find our lives to be crowded by activities? Do we find ourselves stressed and anxious over the tasks that seem unending? Is that busyness, even with good things, keeping us from attending to the business of loving God more and loving others well? Could we stop and sit, or take a walk, spend some time looking at the wonder of creation, remembering the goodness of the one who created it? Could we spend some time thanking him for all that he has done and continues to do for us and in us? That might go a long way in our growing in love for him and for one another.