Our readings this week are: 2 Thessalonians 3.6–13 and Luke 21.5–19.

Are you the kind of person who likes to do, or not? Given an afternoon suddenly empty, do you reach for the hammock or the hoover? We’re all different, and there isn’t a ‘right’ answer here. In fact, from this week’s readings, you could be forgiven for thinking there are only wrong ones!

Jesus, in his warning about the persecutions to come for his disciples, instructs them: ‘Make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance.’ “Don’t prepare in advance” might sound wonderful to some of us – but in a household looking forward to GCSEs in the not-too-distant future, it feels like terrible advice!

Whilst Jesus appears to be advocating waiting passively, St. Paul, in our other reading, is chastising idleness: ‘Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.’ At first glance we seem to be staring into a contradiction – to do or do not turns out to be very trying after all.

But it’s an important question. We live in a world full of activity, opportunities, and causes clamouring for our attention – all underpinned by a narrative of productivity, hard work, and effort. So when, where, and how to respond becomes something we need to grapple with.

In his letter to the Thessalonians, though, Paul also writes this: ‘For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.’ That, to me, cuts through the clamour. It sounds strange to equate living in idleness with being a mere busybody – but he’s quite right. It’s very, very easy to spend a lot of time being busy doing nothing useful. And it’s very, very easy for that to be hugely distracting, for ourselves and for others.

That distinction between busyness and efficacy is a useful one. It prompts us to ask: why are we doing what we’re doing? Where, and how, and for whom? To what purpose is our energy being used?

Taking stock of those questions is always worthwhile. Weeding the deliberate from the habitual, the useful from the distracting, and the fruitful from the wearying is never a bad thing.

Jesus offers another layer of discernment. When those around him admire the beauty of the great temple, he replies by pointing out that ‘these things that you see – the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’ Maybe, then, we also need to add the eternal and the transient to our list.

So why not take a moment, with God, to prayerfully consider who you are right now – what you are doing, and not doing. Where and how does it align with your vision of the eternal, and where might it need a little reorientation? (I’m pretty sure that checking in with God, rather than trying to do it all ourselves, is what really lies beneath Jesus’ command not to prepare in advance.)

It could be that if we can get those answers a little closer to right, we’ll find the strength to take St. Paul’s advice again: ‘Do not be weary in doing what is right.’