Overcoming Hurry Sickness
We suffer from what has come to be known as “hurry sickness.” One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time. But to be spiritually healthy you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.
Imagine for a moment that someone gave you this prescription, with the warning that your life depends on it. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls. Hurry can keep us from living well.
overcoming hurry sickness – his words our life . practical christian living . faith, hope, and love . four quadrants of life : spiritual, social, physical, and financial . inspirational message
Again and again, as we pursue spiritual life, we must do battle with hurry. For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.
We must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. This does not mean we will never be busy. Jesus often had much to do, but he never did it in a way that severed the life-giving connection between him and his Father. He never did it in a way that interfered with his ability to give love when love was called for. He observed a regular practice of withdrawing from activity for the sake of solitude and prayer. Jesus was often busy, but never hurried.
“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule, Hurry is a disordered heart.”
It is because it kills love that hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life. Hurry lies behind much of the anger and frustration of modern life. Hurry prevents us from receiving love from the father or giving it to his children. That’s why Jesus hurried. If we are to follow Jesus, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives – because, by definition, …
“we can’t move faster than the one we are following.”
We can do this. We can become unhurried people. We can become patient people.
Jesus said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” Mark 6:31
Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what your will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?” Luke 12:22,25
So then, a Sabbath res still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. Hebrews 4:9-10
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. Psalm 62:1
