The Badge of Busyness: when busyness becomes an idol

I am sat across the table from my wife, Libby, at Pret a Manger in the Mall at Cribbs, sipping coffee and reading a list of article ideas I have compiled on my phone, asking her to inspire me. She has reminded me of something Tom Harding, a member of our church, said during a sermon of his on Sunday 28th December (2025). If you haven’t heard it, I highly recommend listening to it on our YouTube channel. In his introduction he said something that struck both me and Libby because it is often true of us. It is also something I have noticed in the life of the church in general—that busyness is often worn as a badge of honour. Something to be proud of.

For some reason, we like everyone to know how busy we are and how tired we are as a result. We want others to be convinced of our usefulness, whether it’s a student trying to prove their worth, a business owner building something important, a volunteer who hopes their effort matters, a parent who wants their children to love and appreciate them, a pastor who wants to grow a church, or simply a believer trying to be faithful.

But why?

We fear being overlooked, and being seen as “doing nothing” doesn’t prove our usefulness. We live as if busyness is proof of our worth. If we are productive, visible, and needed, then we feel justified in our existence. If someone else notices it, then we quite like that. If our calendars are full, our phones are pinging, and people depend on us, then we believe our lives matter. So we just keep ourselves busy.

I think deep down, we want to know that we matter, that we are enough, and we wonder if anyone would miss us if we stopped. Busyness becomes our coping mechanism for those fears. Even when we have time to relax, we often check our phones nonstop. Anything but sitting in silence with our own thoughts.

The hunger for validation creeps into every area of our lives: parenting, ministry, career, retirement, and even spiritual disciplines. We worry whether we are reading our Bibles and praying enough. But how would we even know what “enough” looks like?

We tend to think that the opposite of busyness is laziness. But I don’t think it necessarily has to be. There are times when we simply need to be inactive. I don’t think I have ever heard anyone boast in their inactivity. I certainly don’t. When I am asked what I have been up to, I would hardly ever admit to being inactive, even if I have been.

I wear my busyness with a badge of honour. I want people to know that I am doing all I can, by God’s strength, to preach well, shepherd consistently, lead faithfully, and fill in the gaps with emails, texts, evangelism, reading, thinking of ideas, and article writing like I am doing now. If people know I am busy, then it becomes harder to criticise me. If I’m not busy, then I fear the church won’t grow. If I’m not busy then I won’t be valued.

When I am asked how I’m doing, I would much prefer to say I am tired from my busyness than to say I am well rested because I haven’t been up to much. It hurts my pride and my ego. What a sinful man I am!

The truth is, we have to be inactive for periods of time, whether we like it or not. It is a sin to be lazy, of course, but not to be inactive. Before leading Israel, Moses spent 40 years as a shepherd in Midian. I’m sure he was busy at times, but it required no active preaching, no miracles, or public preaching. Just tending sheep in obscurity. We don’t really know what he got up to, but those years were not wasted, they were God’s preparation.

Joseph waited in a prison cell for years. He didn’t build anything, advance ministry or use his gifts publicly. David was anointed king as a teenager but spent many years doing nothing kingly. After Elijah’s greatest victory, he collapsed in exhaustion and despair. God did not give him another assignment. God gave him food, sleep, and silence. Sometimes the most spiritual thing God can give us is rest. Even Jesus Himself spent about thirty years in obscurity before three years of public ministry. And even during His ministry, He often withdrew to lonely places for solitude (Mark 1:35; 4:38; 6:13; Luke 5:16; 10:42).

The tragedy is that busyness is a poor substitute for belonging. It exhausts the soul while never satisfying it. Busyness become an idol we serve in order to feel accomplished and valued.

But in the gospel, our value is not proven or measured by how much we do or accomplish. We are valued by how deeply God loves us. Before we did anything for God or anyone, He declared us His own. Before we started to produce spiritual fruit, we were adopted. Before we served, we were seen by Him. Busyness says: “I matter because I am useful.” The gospel says, “You are useful because you already matter.” Until that makes sense and settles in our hearts and minds, we will keep boasting in our activity, because of the fear of being unimportant. No amount of activity will ever be enough to silence that fear.

So, what needs to happen if you, like me, boast in your busyness? Well, we need to confess it to God, knowing that it is Christ who gives us our identity. We do not repent of work and busyness itself, but of the deeper sin beneath it: the belief that our value rises and falls with what we do and how much we do.

Whether we are active or inactive, God loves us because Christ is our King. He is our Lord and Saviour.  We need to stop trading the security of being loved by God for the illusion of being needed by others.

After that, run to the arms of Christ—to the gospel. We do not boast in our activity, but in Christ’s activity. We are not defined by our success, our careers, our children, our productivity, or anything else. Whether we have full days or quiet days, we belong to God because of Christ.

His love does not increase when we are busy, and it doesn’t decrease when we are still. His love and affection for us are anchored in Jesus Christ, our beautiful Saviour. And this is freeing.

It frees us from the exhausting work of trying to prove ourselves and our worth. We no longer work for identity. Rather, we work from identity. We have true rest in Christ, not because our work is finished, but because His work is finished.