Kevin DeYoung, with his newest book Crazy Busy, has hit a homerun!

Being busy is not even worth mentioning anymore. Most people these days are busy. Many people are way too busy. Perhaps worst of all, even more people tell you they are busy. Its a problem! Its a big problem, and it really seems to have no solution. But in the midst of all the busyness, DeYoung (known as @RevKevDeYoung on twitter) supplies us with a great book to get our minds focused on this problem.

There is not a more applicable book for the countless busy people of our day!

I would like to comment on the book in a few different ways. First, I will list what I really liked about the book. Then, I will give a few of the quotes I liked from each chapter.

 

1. You want to read it! Without knowing any of the content inside the book, Crazy Busy makes you want to read it. As soon as I saw it, I could not wait to read it. It has an attractive pull to it.
   1) It is small. It is only 118 pages. That is very appealing to a busy person.
   2) It is green with a very catchy logo. The stick-figure-man who resembles a yellow street crossing sign with an exclamation point for his head really connects with the reader. This is how we feel. We are busy because everything seems so important.
   3) “Crazy Busy” is a brilliant title.  Saying “I’m busy” is so 15 years ago. It carries no weight or burden. So now busy people say “I’m crazy busy!” for emphasis.
   4) The most interesting part of the appeal to read it is that DeYoung doesn’t necessarily want to tell you how to fix your “being busy” problem. He merely wants to point out the big problem, and then he wants us to recognize the big problem.  The reader recognizes this from the sub-title “A Mercifully Short Book About a Really Big Problem.” This approach is genius. For these four reasons, I think the book itself causes people to want to read it!
   
2. He has this problem too! Chapter one is titled “Hello, My Name is Busy.” The 8 page opening chapter is all about how crazy busy the author Kevin DeYoung is. He does not hide from this fact. He admits it. So the book is not intended to make you feel guilty about being busy. It is intended to get you to see this problem. His first sentence is “I am the worst possible person to write this book.”
3. I loved chapters 5 and 6! Chapter 5 discusses something that I have never read about or heard someone speak on before = Jesus being busy. I found this topic fascinating and very intriguing. Chapter 6 is about parenting.  I wish every parent I know could read this chapter. Very informative and encouraging!
4. What an ending!! DeYoung’s closing chapter is powerful! He does not offer any solutions. No steps to become less busy. Instead, he just highlights Jesus. And he ends this short quick-read book by emphasizing how important it is to be focused on Jesus. To the busy person, the books ending is precisely refreshing!

 

Now let me provide some of my favorite quotes from the book.

Chapter 1

“I’m writing this book to figure out things I don’t know and to work on change I have not yet seen. More than any other book I’ve worked on, this one is for me.” (page 14)

Chapter 2

“We have more opportunity than ever before. The ability to cheaply go anywhere is a recent development. The ability to get information from anywhere is, too. Even the ability to easily stay up past sundown is relatively new. The result, then, is simple but true: because we can do so much, we do do so much. Our lives have no limits.” (page 24)

“When we are crazy busy, we put our souls at risk.” (page 27)

“When busyness goes after joy, it goes after everyone’s joy.” (page 28)

Chapter 3

“Here’s the bottom line: of all the possible problems contributing to our busyness, it’s a pretty good bet that one of the most pervasive is pride.” (page 38

“It’s ok to be busy at times. You can’t love and serve others without giving of your time. So work hard; work long; work often. Just remember it’s not supposed to be about you. Feed people, not your pride.” (page 41)

Chapter 4

“The church– gathered in worship on Sunday and scattered through its members throughout the week– is able to do exponentially more than any one of us alone.” (page 50)

“Its a cross that says I’ll do anything to follow Jesus, not a cross that says I have to do everything for Jesus.” (page 51)

Chapter 5

“Jesus was a very busy man.” (page 54)

“He was busy, but never in a way that made him frantic, anxious, irritable, proud, envious, or distracted by lesser things.” (page 55)

“Time may be our scarcest and most precious resource. And we will begin to use it well only when we realize we do not have an infinite supply to use.” (page 58)

Chapter 6

“I cold be wrong. My kids are still young. Maybe this no-theory is a theory of its own. I just know that the longer I parent the more I want to focus on doing a few things really well, and not get too worked up about everything else. I want to spend time with my kids, teach them the Bible, take them to church, laugh with them, cry with them, discipline them when they disobey, say “sorry” when I mess up, and pray a ton. I want them to look back and think, “I’m not sure what my parents were doing or if they even knew what they were doing. But I always knew my parents loved me, and I knew they loved Jesus.” (page 74)

Chapter 7

“We cannot have meaningful relationships with thousands of people.” (page 88)

Chapter 8

“He made us to spend almost a third of our lives not doing anything except depending on him. Going to sleep is our way of saying, “I trust you, God. You’ll be okay without me.” (page 95)

“If we really paid attention, we’d be surprised to see what we do and don’t do from eight to twelve o’clock every night.” (page 97)

Chapter 9

“If you have creativity, ambition, and love, you will be busy.” (page 102)

“If you love God and serve others, you will be busy too.” (page 107)

Chapter 10

“But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is serious.” (page 114)

“Maybe devotion to Christ really is the one thing that is necessary.” (page 116)

“The only thing more important than ministry is being ministered to.” (page 117)