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Spiritual Discipline #7: SIMPLICITY part B

People nowadays take time far more seriously than eternity
Thomas Kelly

In his book, “The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” John Ortberg speaks of a something that is slowly destroying our lives, something he calls ‘hurry sickness.’ Meyer Friedman defines hurry sickness as “a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.”

People who suffer from “hurry sickness” are never satisfied in spite of all their hurrying. They can never move fast enough or get enough accomplished. Hurry sickness has become so common and so accepted in our culture that we have even developed a new word to describe this type of behavior: Multi-tasking.

What hurry sickness brings about is a life plagued by superficiality because depth only develops slowly over time. As a result, our capacity to love is diminished. “Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have” (Ortberg, 81).

So what can we do to stop our lives from being consumed by “hurry-sickness”?

1. Develop the skill of “slowing.” Deliberately choose to place yourself in positions where you simply have to wait. For example: get in the longest line at the grocery store, get behind the longest line of cars at a red light (or behind that eighteen wheeler), eat your food slowly, take off your watch for a day, etc. Many people, especially Type-A people, believe that they will not be able to accomplish as much if they do not rush; however, “researchers have found that there is simply no correlation between hurry or Type-A behavior and productivity” (Ortberg, 84).

2. Make sure that the “main thing remains the main thing.” We live with a host of agendas that often compete with each other, and with God’s. His ultimate priority for each of us is to know Him, be like Jesus, and change the world. When we align our lives with this set of agendas, desiring to live them out in all areas, it becomes much easier for us to determine what our priorities and goals are to be. What we choose to become involved in will have a singleness and unity in purpose: God’s purpose.

Over the next couple months, especially as we enter into the hectic Christmas season, re-evaluate your life. Practice the art of “slowing”. Ask yourself: Is the way I choose to use my time consistent with God’s purposes for me? Do I have so many things going on that at best, I can only pursue God’s agendas in a rushed and sporadic fashion? What might I need to drop from my schedule not only to slow things down, but also to make room for what is most important to God?