“I think being too hurried is the problem underneath or before, if not all, then so many of the other problems of our day.”
John Mark Comer
Hurry… ALWAYS in a hurry. Not sure if that’s true for you but it is for me. Even when I don’t need to be in a hurry, I’m in a hurry. Even when I’m not late for a meeting or an appointment, I’m in a hurry to get there. And when I don’t have much on my to-do list, I’m still in a hurry to get other things done. Always in a hurry… can you relate??
As you may know firsthand, hurry, well, it’s many things.
Hurry is exhausting.
Hurry is stressful.
Hurry often leads to annoyance and anger.
Hurry often leads to relational tension.
Hurry is MANY things, but one thing I can affirm is that hurry is not all that helpful. Not saying that it’s never helpful, but generally speaking, I can tell you from 52 years of life-experience that hurry has not helped me walk with God and it has not helped me walk with people.
In fact, hurry has done the opposite… it’s caused me to miss things that are from God for me, and it’s led me to miss beautiful moments with the people around me.
So, let me ask you this, if we know hurry is not all that helpful for our us, namely, our vertical and horizontal relationships, why do we continue down the path of hurry?
I realize that hurry is the pace of the world around us, but why does it have to be my pace… why does it have to be your pace?
Well, in short, it does not! God has given us a solution to living a life of hurry. And would you know it, His solution has everything to do with… WALKING AT THREE MILES AN HOUR.
Can walking truly change your life? Well, medically speaking, yes! But relationally speaking, both vertically and horizontally, walking is a tremendous remedy for living a life of hurry.
Very practically speaking, something I’ve started doing to help me break free from a life of hurry is where I park my vehicle.
Maybe you’ve noticed this, but when you go to the grocery store, or to the mall (do people still go there?), people are always fighting and jockeying for the closest parking spaces. And maybe you’ve noticed this as well, but when we can’t find a close parking space, we get frustrated and annoyed. Why is that?
In short, HURRY.
We want to get in and get out as quick as we can and if we have to park further away, well, having to walk a bit further hinders our hurry.
Just give it a try… park further away. No one is in the furthest part of the parking lot. No one is fighting or jockeying for space out there.
It’s amazing how just the simple act of having to walk a bit further will slow you down, both physically and spiritually. And as you walk by all those cars circling around and around just wanting to get the closest spot, just smile and walk by them at three miles an hour.
I’m not sure if parking in the farthest part of the parking lot will change your life, but it might change your day. Hurry is not all that helpful, but walking at three miles an hour, well, it’s helping to recalibrate my heart to what the LORD is doing in that moment, and that alone just might change my life, maybe yours as well.
