Jesus invites us: “Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.” (Mark 6:31) But will we slow down and listen?
It was John Ortberg who asked this important question: “What do I need to do to be spiritually healthy?” Now that is a vital consideration for all of us. After a long pause, Dallas Willard said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” John writes those words down and waits for more wise insights from Dallas. “That’s a good one. Now what else is there?” Dallas’s answer? “There is nothing else.”
We first came across this crucial conversation in one of our favorite Ortberg book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People(1997) in a chapter called “An Unhurried Life: The Practice of ‘Slowing’”(p.76) [Ortberg could have called that book, “Disciplines for Dummies”…like me, as he places some pretty lofty concepts on the lower shelf for the sake of those of us who need our spiritual diet simplified so we can get it.] Then the same story re-appeared in John’s book, Soul Keeping: Caring for the Most Important Part of You(2014, p.16) I think you are seeing a theme emerge here concerning how important this stuff is. In other words, it’s time to pay attention! Now fast forward to last week, after hearing countless times about John Mark Comer’s book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry(2019), it came up as the discussion guide in my (Mark’s) Wednesday morning A-Team. Yes, that “A” stands for “accountability” so we will take these questions seriously.
My dear friend and elder at The Hills church, Kevin Wright, started our discussion on July 31 with the question, “When has hurry caused issues for you recently?” Easy question, right? Here’s when I need to confess, I had a story, but I failed to share it with the group. But I will hit pause and share it here:
As soon as Jill and I returned to North Carolina from six weeks away, I knew we needed to get our newly purchased ceiling fans up to help cool us off while we slept. So I raced ahead and mounted the one above our bed that I thought was the one Jill had picked out for that purpose. It wasn’t until a few days later after a professional electrician had mounted the one remaining fan in the living room that Jill realized the issue. The fan in the living room was intended for the bedroom and vice versa. No worries. The switch has been made, but we would have saved time and grief if we (meaning, I) had simply slowed down.
This leads us to John Mark Comer’s “ten symptoms of hurry sickness” (actually adapted from Ruth Haley Barton in her , Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership, 2012). I challenged our A-Team guys to take the test themselves and then confer with their wives to see if they gave them the same score. Check this out:
- Irritability (you get mad, frustrated, or just annoyed way too easily)
- Hypersensitivity
- Restlessness (when you actually do try to slow down and rest, you can’t relax)
- Workaholism (or just nonstop activity)
- Emotional numbness (no capacity to feel another’s pain)
- Out-of-order priorities (disconnected from identity and calling)
- Lack of care for your body
- Escapist behaviors
- Slippage in our spiritual practices
- Isolation – feeling disconnected from God, others and your own soul.
How did you do? As you are thinking this through, just a few additional questions: What do you do to “rest”? What priorities keep you too busy to practice sabbath/rest, silence and solitude? What noise in your life makes it difficult to focus? What practical steps will help? Let’s commit to follow Paul’s directive to combat hurry sickness: “Don’t worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace which exceeds anything we can understand! His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:6-7 NLT) What a promise! Will you commit with us to listen to Jesus’ invitation to the quiet? Silence and solitude awaits. If you have more ideas, please reach out and share them with us.
