I’m sure I’m not alone in being frequently overwhelmed by my to-do list. Or rather, lists. Sometimes it seems I’m wearing so many hats that I might as well be Bartholomew Cubbins.

Many of us could probably do with less on our plates, but for the purpose of this article, I’d actually like to focus on what a blessing busy-ness can be. While I’ve had a few near panic attacks of late, I have also had a positive realization that I hope might be helpful to some of you. That realization is this:

Having things to do is a blessing. They are signs that I’m really living.

Sometimes I feel as though I am desperately waiting for the next chance to rest. Rest is good. The Lord built rest into the very fabric of creation, so we know that it’s divinely recommended. But is rest the point of living? No. The point of living is to be useful. Yes, we can (and often do) take on too much. But if we strike some kind of balance between rest and busy-ness, then having chock full days of errands and chores can truly be a blessing. They are a sign that we are deeply alive, humming with uses. 

Besides, sometimes the ways in which we choose to “rest” are actually a waste of time. Occasional bouts of TV watching, online shopping, and social media scrolling are fine in moderation, but science has proven that these activities don’t really rejuvenate us. In fact, they can have negative impacts on sleep, which I think we can all agree is the most crucial form of rest there is. I also find that I can lose shocking swathes of time to these inane forms of supposed relaxation and that I actually feel better on the whole when I have pleasantly busy days—days in which I have to spend my time wisely and with intention.

Sure, trying to accomplish too many services at once might ultimately diminish our usefulness, but, if balanced with appropriate amounts of real rest, busyness can be a sign of a life lived fully. Each to-do is like a building block of living—even the repetitive and mundane ones like doing dishes and folding laundry. Rather than inhibiting life, these simple uses are life. Of course we don’t want our entire existence to center around chores, but maybe they aren’t the balls and chains we sometimes make them out to be. Maybe they’re actually stepping stones on a path to heavenly joy.

I’ve been trying to shift my perspective on busyness as holidays approach and I struggle to balance a silly number of hats on my one, imperfect head. A full day can be a gift. A day without needing to do much, can also be a gift. It’s how we look at and use what fills our days that really matters. It’s also about choosing to fill our days with things that really are useful. Sometimes rest is the most useful thing we can do. Sometimes, it’s work inside the home. Sometimes it’s helping outside the home. Whatever uses are filling your days, I pray that we can take a deep breath, choose our uses wisely, and remember that our simple uses matter.

“When human beings were first created, they were imbued with wisdom and a love of wisdom, not for their own sake, but for the sake of their having it to share with others. Therefore it was engraved on the wisdom of the wise that no one should be wise and live for himself alone, unless he was wise and lived at the same time for others. This was the origin of society, which otherwise would not exist. To live for others is to perform useful services. Useful services are the bonds of society, there being as many bonds as there are good and useful services, and useful services are unlimited in number.

Useful services are spiritual when they have to do with love toward God and love for the neighbor. They are moral and civic services when they have to do with love for the society or civil state in which a person resides, and with love of the companions and fellow citizens with whom he is associated. Useful services are natural when they have to do with love of the world and its necessities. And they are corporeal when they have to do with the love of self-preservation for the sake of higher uses.

[2] All these capacities for being useful are engraved on the human spirit, and they follow in sequence, one after another, and when they are combined, one exists within another…”
– Married Love 18