The Ache Beneath Our Busyness

Blog by Alan Fadling

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to confuse drivenness with faithfulness? Especially in leadership, we often feel the relentless pull to do more, be more, and prove more. Yet beneath the surface, something vital is being depleted.

We end up tired in ways that a simple day off cannot repair. This is not the fatigue of good and meaningful work—it’s the weariness of striving to earn what God has already given us.

The desert fathers told a story that names this ache. An older man saw two younger men struggling to break down a large rock:

• “My brother,” he said, “what is this work you are doing?”
• “We are struggling with this extremely hard rock and we can barely manage to break it.”
• “You are right to say we,” the old man replied, “for you have not been alone in tackling it. There was someone else with you, someone you did not see, someone who was not so much helping you as viciously driving you on.”*

Those younger men thought their drivenness was virtuous. But in truth, they were being pushed by an enemy who cared nothing for their souls.

Workaholism does this. It produces activity, but not fruit. It drains instead of nourishes. It leaves us exhausted rather than joyful.

The good news is that we can learn to discern the difference between hard work energized by grace and toil driven by anxiety or people-pleasing.

Grace always leads to life. Drivenness never does.

Reflection Questions

• When have you mistaken drivenness for faithfulness in your leadership?
• How do you experience the difference between soul-draining toil and grace-energized work?
• What one sign of unhealthy drivenness might God be inviting you to notice this week?

Footnotes:

*John Cassian. Conferences 9:6. Trans. By Colm Luibheid. New York: Paulist Press, 1985, p. 105.