“Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problem” is a book written by Kevin DeYoung (2013, Crossway). At 118 pages it is an easy and short read for anyone who finds themselves battling with busyness. As a Senior Pastor of a church in Michigan, an author, blogger (http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/), conference speaker and father to 6 young children, DeYoung writes a book on busyness from personal experience (just writing his involvements made me need a sleep ;)). The book was given the ECPA Medallion of Excellence and awarded the 2014 Christian Book of the Year and it is easy to see why.
DeYoung combines humour, personal anecdotes and Biblical wisdom and insight to shed light on the topic of busyness. Well-researched, this book helped me understand more about our culture of ‘busyness’ and the way we arrived here. DeYoung writes, “I read an anecdote once about a woman from another culture who came to the United States and began to introduce herself as “Busy.” It was, after all, the first thing she heard when meeting any American. Hello, I’m Busy- she figured it was part of our traditional greeting, so she told everyone she met that that’s who she was.” (2013, p.16). An epidemic that is sweeping across the United States and now coming to Australian shores, we seem to accumulate more technology to make life easier, yet appear more and more busy. I think it is definitely time for a book like “Crazy Busy” to hit the shelves.
Amazingly, in this short and succinct book, DeYoung covers a broad range of topics. Including parenting, work/life balance, church and ministry and sleep and priorities, DeYoung writes with wisdom and insight and uses an approachable tone to make his message palatable to any reader. Like any non-fiction book, one needs to be in the right head space to read it, particularly taking in the content and making the life changes required.
DeYoung doesn’t give a 10-step program on how to be less busy, which some people may have desired. Instead, he applies biblical principles to the topic and allows the Holy Spirit and individual reader to determine what changes (if any) are needed. A book I would easily recommend, I found it helpful, straight-forward and some points DeYoung made resonated rather loudly to me.
Purchase from Book Depository here.