Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 3
He argues the hard, uncomfortable items never get done because we keep adding to our to-do list and stay distracted—not because we quit working; where have you seen busyness function as avoidance in your own spiritual life, and what “difficult thing” might God be putting at the top of your list?
Another way to ask: He says we stay busy so we don’t have to face hard things. Where has busyness helped you avoid something in your spiritual life, and what hard thing might God be asking you to do first?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker’s point is that busyness often functions like spiritual avoidance: we stay active, but the most uncomfortable, inward work gets postponed. The “difficult thing” God may be surfacing is whatever you keep pushing down the list because it is painful, unclear, or requires slowing down.
- He describes long-term lists that “never really gets completed,” because new items keep being added.
- “The easy and the fun things get done first,” while “difficult, uncomfortable” things get “pushed to the bottom of the list.”
- He insists it’s not mainly laziness: “We don’t stop working,” but we “stay busy and distracted with other things.”
- He ties this to spiritual growth: “Time and slowing down is essential to spiritual formation. Busyness is our enemy.”
- His Guatemala example shows the pattern: earlier he could “ignore” anxiety through distraction, but slowed life forced him to “face it.”