12.3.23 Willisburg Bulletin
Always in a Rush
We, as a society, seem to always be on the go. We run 100 mph with a million things to do and the to-do list never ends. However, it has caused major issues. We have gotten caught up in a lie that hurrying will buy us more time. Have you ever caught yourself saying, “We got to get there or we’ll miss…” yet we speed and drive risky just to maybe get there five minutes faster. How about “The quicker we do this, the faster we can…” yet we miss the lessons being taught and fun being had with the task at hand. What about “if we do this instead, it will cut out this much time…” yet most the time we end up having to redo it. Society has helped us get so far in this lie, it seems almost impossible to get done all the things we have on our to-do list. Hurrying is one of the greatest enemies of our spiritual life. It’s like skimming through a book just to get the big idea by just reading the front and back page, but not the individual pages. That’s what hurrying does – we are skimming over our life. We focus so much on our first and last days (of school, work, holidays, life in general, etc) that we miss the blessings and lessons of the everyday pages of our book. We are hurrying through our life instead of living it. We need to get to the point in our lives that we can say, “I’ve embraced by faith an unhurried day, yet accomplished what God intended for me to do in my allotted time.” The question becomes, how do we balance the modern world of having so much to do with the unhurried life of being more like Jesus?
Hurry Symptoms:
Do you constantly speed up daily activities? We are haunted by the lie that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Our schedule is booked solid causing us to lose the importance of slowing down to enjoy the activity itself with the most important people. Jesus spent all the time it took unhurriedly with the people He was close to. Do you find yourself always having to multi-task? This once was a great strength, but I have seen it become one of our greatest weaknesses. Women can fold laundry, listen to a podcast, monitor dinner, all while thinking about an upcoming event she is planning and watching the kids. Men can build something, listen to music, do house repairs, all while thinking about an upcoming work job and the Wednesday night lesson. BUT we aren’t able to stop multitasking when we need to and we can’t find the time to devote our undivided attention to our family and God. Jesus took time with His 12 apostles even with the crowds of people while doing miracles. Do you see that your life is cluttered? We are so weighed down with things to do and we worry about all the things we failed to say no to in the first place that we forget the important things. Jesus “was always about His Father’s business”. Do you have a lack of study? We’ve become a superficial society by trading wisdom for just info. Our mentality has turned into not taking the time to know more about Bible topics because we can just look it up whenever so we don’t really need to study it. Jesus took the time to understand and know God’s plan, which is evident in His obedience even to His death. Do you make reasons to rest because of sunset fatigue? We rush all day, even cutting corners, speeding, and skipping important tasks, even when there’s no reason to because we think we’ll be saving time for another thing on our never ending to-do list, just to come home and be too tired to play a game with your kids or give attention to your spouse. Yet we speak “reasons” to okay ourselves to sit “just for a minute,” which turns into excessive tv watching/phone scrolling. Hurrying kills love, which is why it’s the enemy. We don’t have time to receive love from the Father so we definitely don’t have time to give the love to His children of the world. Love takes time, it’s not just an emotion. Sadly, we fill our day with so much that we stop truly loving the one we promised to love until death and we lose the sense of gratitude and wonder of life. Jesus made sure to love, even to death.
Unhurrying Involves:
Learning the capability of accepting delay with equanimity (right disposition of mental stability/ evenness) by…
Being still and knowing that He is God (Ps 46:10); Being still and standing in awe (Ps 4:4); Being still and being blessed in His house (Ps 84:4); Being still with peace (Mk 4:39) which leads to …
Spiritual development where we can resist temptations easier, care for and love others thoroughly, pray more diligently and deeply to the Father, & focus on making disciples.