At my staff meeting today the subject of the busyness of a minister came up. We decided that all of us have different ideas about how much work we can actually do and that this is also defined by the kind of work that is important to our ministry. It often distresses me that some people get the impression that I’m too busy to see or help them. There are always different kinds of busy and people always take precedence over the more mundane things. This is not to say that I am not busy but that doesn’t mean I don’t have time for you.
Ministry is not about how much we do but who we are, it is not a job of work but a life. My life is my ministry.
This means that I never actually stop being a minister – I can’t stop being a minister any more than I can stop being me, even when I’m on holiday I’m still a minister.
Of course, there are some things that do get in the way and some things that just have to be done – that is where the busyness comes in. The hard bit is trying to decide what is important and worth spending time on.