Have you heard the buzz?  If you think it is none of your concern or beeswax, think again.  It’s not just talk. The following facts should sting you out of your environmental slumber.  According to the National Resource Defense Council’s website (nrdc.org) Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) is a very real thing, which is the extinction of Honey Bees.   They are dying at record rates. Some experts say it is due to climate change, loss of habitat, chemicals and pesticides.  There is another culprit. It is Varroa mites, which are tiny red-brown external parasites. This mite basically hitches a ride on a bee into their hive where the mite lays eggs which then feed on young bees with the ultimate goal of wiping out the entire hive.  Imagine a mite the size of a pancake attached to your body which sucks the very life out of you. (beeaware.org)  We cannot live without those little busy bees as they play a huge role in our food and our health.  

I realized how hard bees work when I took a road trip to a farm called Smith-Perry in Ooltewah, Tennessee one Sunday afternoon.  This year-round farm is known for its strawberries, pumpkins and corn. However, their 30 acres of Sunflowers is stunning. They have drawn a crowd!  As I walked in and out of rows of those tall flowers, I was amazed how many bees were on the face or central spiral of each Sunflower, working away.

You and I are like busy bees but never ending busyness can suck the very marrow out of you a little at a time.  So many folks are married to their occupations. With the hum in Hollywood over the sequel to the movie 9 to 5, I wonder if it should it be called 8 to 6? We work way too hard. We have transformed from human beings to humans doing. Some people get their significance from their work but wake up to burn-out and then learn their jobs have become extinct.

Wise ‘ol Solomon addressed “work” numerous times in his book Ecclesiastes. “So what do people get in this life for all their hard work and anxiety?  Their days of labor are filled with pain and grief; even at night their minds cannot rest. It is all meaningless.” (NLT 2:22-23).

I kid my wife about the little books she keeps stacked up in our bathroom.  When I was in there for a pit stop, I read the following from the tiny yet million selling Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, “You live among people who glorify busyness; they have made time a tyrant that controls their lives.  Even those who know Me as Savior tend to march to the tempo of the world. They have bought into the illusion that more is always better: more meetings, more programs, more activity.”

What can you cut back from your busy schedule so you can STOP and enter God’s uninterrupted presence on a regular basis?

pictures courtesy of “Nelson & his Nikon”.