Apathy and Lack-of-Rest are Strange Bedfellows

...When we get too busy, everything becomes either a trudge or a scramble, the doledrums or sheer mayhem.  We get bored with the familiar, threatened by the unfamiliar.  Our capacity for both steadfastness and adventure shrivels.

We just want to be left alone.

One measure for whether or not you're rested enough - besides falling asleep in board meetings - is to ask yourself this: How much do I care about the things I care about?  When we lose concern for people, both the lost and the found, for the bride of Christ, for friendship, for truth and beauty and goodness; when we cease to laugh when our children laugh (and instead yell at them to quiet down) or weep when our spouses weep (and instead wish they didn't get so emotional); when we hear news of trouble among our neighbors and our first thought is that we hope it isn't going to involve us - when we stop caring about the things we care about - that's a signal we're too busy.  We have let ourselves be consumed by the things that feed the ego but starve the soul.

Busyness kills the heart.

-- from The Rest of God by Mark Buchanan