Too Busy to Be Busy?
A young girl, dressed in her Sunday best, was running as fast as she could, trying not to be late for Sunday School class. As she ran, she prayed, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late. Dear Lord, please don't let me be late!" While she was running and praying, she tripped on the curb and fell, getting her clothes dirty and tearing her dress.
She got up, brushed herself off, and started running again. As she ran, she began to pray once again. "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late, but please don't push me either!"
It's easy to go too fast in today's world. It starts while you are a teenager. Life gets busy. From the teen years, it has gotten busier. Marriage, children, careers, sports, and then you are dealing with teenagers again. This time, it's their schedule, not yours. They tell me life is supposed to slow down, but I’m 76 years old and still busy. It's easy to feel like that little girl in the story above, "Dear Lord, please don't let me be late, but don't push me either!"
Life can be less frantic if we can learn a lesson from a robot. No, not the robot you are thinking of. In South Africa, robots are often referred to as traffic control lights. Every traffic control light has three colors: green, yellow, and red. Just like robots, we as people have green, yellow, and red times at certain times in our lives. Sometimes, we go. That's green time. Sometimes, we need to slow down and proceed cautiously. That's yellow time. Then there are those red-light times when we are stopped, but others can go. There are other people in the universe. Surely, someone else can have a turn even when you are rushed for time, can't they?
What do you do in a busy time in life when the robot is flashing yellow? My advice: slow down. I cringe when I say that because by nature, I’m full speed ahead. Stephen Covey says, "A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, 'Wrong jungle!" That’s a red light. Albert Einstein once said, "Try not to become a person of success but a person of value." That’s a yellow light. Conducting your life in a yellow light time in a green light way can be dangerous to you and others around you. You may trip and, just like that little girl, blame the Lord for pushing you down. Perhaps her prayer should have been, “Dear Lord, I have a problem. It’s me.”
Here's a potentially life-saving lesson about running red lights that remains on people's minds today. Did you know that the Titanic received five iceberg warnings just before it went down? When the sixth message came during the early hours of the morning, "Look out for icebergs!" The operator of the Titanic wired back, "Shut up! I'm busy!"
Thirty minutes later, the great vessel, whose captain believed, "Even God couldn't sink this ship," was rapidly sinking. Why did this tragedy happen? They ignored the truth about icebergs. What was visible above the water couldn't have sunk the ship. Unfortunately for the Titanic, most of the iceberg is below the water. When dangers are beyond what you see, proceed carefully. The captain didn't even need to stop the ship—just slow down. He traveled through a yellow light zone at a speed equal to a green light. It would have been safe to go full speed in a few more hours. However, the results were catastrophic. But I guess, the only thing worse than waiting is wishing you had.
I'm not sure about you, but I get concerned about those times in my life marked by yellow and red lights. I excel in the green light times. After all, it's 2026. But what if the times call for a more cautious approach to life? For example, should I continue to spend extravagantly when the economy is ultra nervous? Should I be gone all the time when my teenagers are struggling and need me just to be around? Should I keep on working all the time when my body, like the red light on my dashboard, is screaming, “Slow down?” Remember that running a red light will get you a traffic ticket or even kill you or injure others if you have a Titanic accident. You don’t need to stop; slow down. Why? You’re too busy to be busy.
So, there you have it - you've just met and learned a valuable lesson from Professor Robot and Professor Iceberg. Now, if I could coax those taxi drivers in South Africa who are ‘too busy to be busy’ to learn from Professor Robot, it would be lekker. Lekker in Afrikaans means nice.
What's your takeaway? Ask yourself, what part of my life am I too busy to be busy? And then, do something about it. And remember, impression without expression leads to depression or even worse, a Titanic experience.
Why did I write this article? I wrote it for myself, those taxi drivers, and others who struggle to slow down. I mean, me yelling at squirrels in the street to move so they don’t die is probably the same feeling God has watching me live my life most days. How about you?
Ed Delph/September 8, 2025/CCC