“Everyone is looking for You.”
I do not know if there is a better sentence to describe the life of a busy woman.
Someone needs an answer. Someone wants a meeting. There is an email waiting, a text unanswered, another task to complete, another person who genuinely could use your help.
And here is the tricky part:
Some of those things are good.
Some of those people need your attention. Some deserve it. Some opportunities are worthwhile. Some requests would absolutely produce something positive.
But good does not always mean assigned.
And if we are going to live effective, focused, fulfilled lives, we have to learn the difference between responding to everything that calls us and remaining faithful to the purpose for which we have been designed.
“Everyone Is Looking for You”
There is a fascinating little moment in Mark 1 that I think every busy woman should pay attention to.
Jesus has been ministering in Capernaum. People are being healed. Demons are being cast out. Word is spreading.
This is not meaningless activity. This is good work.
Then Mark tells us:
“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
— Mark 1:35
Eventually Simon and the others find Him.
Their message?
“Everyone is looking for You!”
Can you hear the urgency in that?
Jesus, people need You.
Jesus, there is more work to do.
Jesus, yesterday was successful. Let’s keep this thing going!
If we were measuring productivity by demand, Jesus should have immediately returned.
But He did not.
Instead, He said:
“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
— Mark 1:38
In other words:
I know they are looking for Me. But I also know why I came.
That distinction changes everything.
Responsiveness Is Not Productivity
We have developed a strange relationship with responsiveness.
An email comes in and we feel compelled to answer.
Someone sends a message and we feel guilty if we do not respond immediately.
An invitation arrives and we start rearranging our calendar before asking whether we should accept it.
Someone needs something and their urgency suddenly becomes our priority.
Responsiveness can make us feel productive because we are constantly doing something.
But activity and effectiveness are not the same thing.
The world does not need you responding to everything. It needs you faithful to your assignment.
Your To-Do List Will Never Actually Be Finished
I hate to break it to you, Busy Girl, but you are probably never going to finish your to-do list.
You will cross something off and add something else.
That is life.
Laundry gets washed and becomes dirty again.
Groceries get purchased and disappear.
Emails get answered and new ones arrive.
Meetings happen and create additional action items.
There is nothing wrong with these things. Life requires maintenance.
But we have to understand the difference between maintenance work and purpose work.
Maintenance keeps life moving.
Purpose moves the assignment forward.
Both matter.
But they are not the same.
To-Do Items Rotate. Purpose Plans Produce Fruit.
This is why I have started thinking about something I call purpose plans.
Purpose plans are different from ordinary tasks.
A task may simply need completing.
A purpose plan moves something forward that you were specifically designed, positioned, equipped, or assigned to build.
Purpose plans produce fruit.
They advance the mission.
They affect people.
They build something that may continue producing long after you have moved on to the next thing.
Some of the things God asks you to build may even continue producing fruit beyond your lifetime.
That changes the question we ask about productivity.
Instead of asking only:
“What do I need to get done today?”
Perhaps we should also ask:
“What has God entrusted me to move forward today?”
Those are very different questions.
Beware of Good Distractions
We usually imagine distractions as obviously foolish things.
Scrolling social media for an hour.
Watching television instead of working.
Procrastinating.
And yes, those things can distract us.
But I think some of the most dangerous distractions are much more sophisticated.
They look like:
good opportunities,
good ideas,
good causes,
good invitations,
good people,
and legitimate needs.
That is why discernment matters.
The people looking for Jesus were not asking Him to do something sinful.
They wanted more ministry!
Yet Jesus knew that returning was not His next assignment.
Good can still pull you out of alignment.
And that means productivity cannot merely be about becoming better at getting things done.
We have to become better at discerning which things deserve to be done by us.
How Did Jesus Know?
This may be my favorite part of the passage.
How did Jesus know that the crowds were not the assignment?
I believe Mark gives us a clue before Simon ever arrives.
Before the demands.
Before the invitations.
Before everyone began looking for Him.
Jesus went away alone and prayed.
He separated Himself from the noise long enough to remain aligned with the Father.
And there is a productivity principle here that I do not want us to miss:
Do not let people hand you your agenda before God has given you your assignment.
If you begin every morning by immediately opening email, checking messages, scrolling social media, or responding to everyone else's requests, you are allowing the world to begin bidding for your attention before you have decided where it belongs.
Jesus did something different.
He separated.
He listened.
He discerned.
Then He moved.
Separate → Listen → Discern → Move
Separate.
Create space away from the noise and demands of other people.
Listen.
Pray. Think. Read Scripture. Get quiet enough to hear something besides urgency.
Discern.
Ask what actually belongs to you today. What is maintenance? What is purpose? What is simply someone else's idea of what you should be doing?
Move.
Once you know the assignment, protect it.
Because people will come looking for you.
Emails will arrive.
Opportunities will appear.
Needs will surface.
And sometimes you are going to have to say:
That is good—but it is not the plan.
Not Everyone Has the Intel
There is one final lesson here that I think is incredibly important.
The disciples loved Jesus.
They were not trying to sabotage His purpose.
From their perspective, returning to the crowds probably made perfect sense.
And the people closest to you may do exactly the same thing.
People who love you can give you wonderful advice.
They can see gifts in you.
They can recognize opportunities.
They can genuinely want what is best for you.
But they do not always have the intel.
The Father does not necessarily announce your assignment to everyone around you before He gives it to you.
There will be moments when you have to remain faithful to something God has shown you even when someone else cannot understand why you are saying no to something perfectly good.
That requires confidence.
It requires discernment.
And it requires focus.
So Before You Answer the Next Invitation…
Ask yourself:
Is this something that needs my attention—or something that has my assignment?
Those are not always the same thing.
Your inbox can be empty while your assignment remains unfinished.
Your calendar can be full while your purpose remains untouched.
You can respond to everyone and still fail to move the thing forward that you were actually placed here to build.
My friend, you were not designed merely to complete tasks.
You were designed to produce fruit.
So get quiet.
Get the assignment.
Discern the difference between good and God-given.
And then protect your attention long enough to do the work that matters.
Stay on task, Busy Girl.
The world does not need you responding to everything.
It needs you faithful to your assignment.
Now go… and RUN!
