Slowing

Big Idea: Hurrying destroys spiritual life, so we must slow down and make unhurried time for God, following Jesus's example.

In the 1960s, expert testimony was given to a subcommittee of the United States Senate on time management. The testimony highlighted that, due to technological advances, in about twenty years, people may need to significantly reduce their work hours or weeks, or they might have to retire earlier. The challenge, they said, was what people would do with all their free time.

Thirty years later, not many of us would say that our primary challenge is what to do with all the excess time. The malady of our day is hurry sickness. We now have shampoos that combine conditioner, eliminating all the time-consuming rinsing that we used to do. We have pizza delivered in thirty minutes or it's free. In Detroit, a hospital promised to see emergency-room patients within 20 minutes, or the treatment would be free. This led to a 30% increase in business.

We eat fast food, not because it's good food or cheap food, but because it's fast food. Even when fast food was invented, you had to get out of the car, go inside, place your order, and take the food to the table. So they invented the drive-through lane to enable our families to eat in vans, just as nature intended. One man lamented, "The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get!"

At the grocery store, we often count the people in each line and estimate how quickly they will move based on the number of items in their carts. We create mock races for our children – "Let's see who can bathe the fastest. Hurry up!" We create faster vehicles and computers, but when asked why we need more speed, our only response is that faster is inherently better.

Our world has become the world of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland: "Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!" Meyer Friedman defines hurry sickness as:

...above all, 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, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other persons.

Another man writes, "Nothing is more characteristic of modern life than the complaint, 'If I only had time.'"

What does this have to do with spirituality? Hurrying undermines godliness. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. It can destroy our souls and prevent us from living. If we are to grow spiritually, we need to eliminate hurry from our lives.

A pastor called a wise friend for spiritual guidance. He talked about the pace of his life and the rhythms of his family. He asked, "What should I do to be spiritually healthy?" Long pause. "You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life." Another long pause. "Okay, I've written that one down. That's a good one. Now what else is there?" Another long pause. "There is nothing else." And this advice is valuable today.

Time management isn't really where I want to go tonight. What I want to focus on is the necessity of slowing down for your spiritual health. And I want to begin by looking at the example of Jesus.

Did Jesus work hard? Absolutely. After describing a busy day, Mark writes:

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. (Mark 1:32-34)

Due to his ministry duties, he missed dinner and worked late. His family heard about it and said, "He is out of his mind" (Mark 3:21). After a strenuous teaching session one day, he went out on a boat and slept right through a storm. Talk about a picture of exhaustion!

Yet Jesus was never in a feverish rush as we are. Jesus took time away.

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. (Mark 6:31-32)

Doing God's work is very important, yet Jesus recognized that to do it effectively, we need periodic rest and renewal. A preacher once boasted that he never takes a day off because Satan never takes a day off. Another wiser preacher responded, "I usually don't use Satan as my example." Jesus knew the wisdom of slowing in the middle of hectic demands.

Jesus prioritized two important relationships that are often neglected when we're busy: our relationships with others and with God. We often prioritize our busy schedules over people, even learning time management techniques to minimize interactions and quickly return to our tasks. I often think of the Good Samaritan parable, where the priest and Levite ignore the man who was robbed. Were they too busy? Yet Jesus had time for people. He could spend hours talking to one person, such as the Samaritan woman at the well.

And he also made time for God.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for you!" (Mark 1:35-37)

While others sought Jesus, he prioritized meeting with God in the morning to receive guidance.

The remarkable thing is that, the night before his death, Jesus could say, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4). Let me quote from a little booklet by Charles Hummel:

How could Jesus have used the word "finished"? His three-year ministry seemed all too short. A prostitute at Simon's banquet had found forgiveness and new life, but many others still walked the street without forgiveness and a new life. For every ten withered muscles that had flexed into health, a hundred remained impotent. Yet on that last night, with many useful tasks undone and urgent human needs unmet, the Lord had peace: He knew he had finished God's work.

Learning From Jesus

Now we want to become like Jesus. We can gain valuable insights for our spiritual life from his experiences and the teachings of the Bible.

We need unrushed time alone with God and ourselves.

If Jesus needed time alone with God to be effective, how much more do we need that unrushed time? If Jesus, who was sinless and lived perfectly, needed to step back from others' demands, how much more should we prioritize this for our spiritual well-being?

Like Elijah, I've realized that God often speaks in a "still, small voice" rather than through loud events like wind or earthquakes. To hear it, we need to slow down! I know for most of us, we're very busy. We begin the day racing to get to work on time. And we end the day exhausted, collapsing into bed. Our minds are always busy, and even while driving, we play the radio to keep them occupied.

Now let me tell you about your devotional life: you open your Bible, if you even have time for that. And you look at the assigned passage of Scripture. And automatically you begin to see if the passage is going to take too much time to read. Honestly, if you use a one-year Bible or other Bible guide, you're rushing to get the Bible reading done. You certainly don't have time to slow down and meditate on a certain passage of Scripture! We rush through Bible reading, if we do it at all, which prevents us from taking the time to meditate on specific passages.

Now let me tell you about your prayer life. As kids, we quickly said a prayer before meals: "For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful." Amen." When you pray – if you even have time to pray – you almost begin, "Lord, I've only got two minutes. Not a lot of time. I'm sure you understand." And your mind is racing ahead, and you certainly don't have time to slow down and listen to God.

An ordinary car engine turns at four thousand revolutions for minute. A racing motor can turn up to ten thousand. We try to live our lives up at ten thousand. And the problem is, when we come to pray, we're still revving up at ten thousand RPM. And we've got to slow down to hear the still, small voice of God.

Bill Hybels writes: Embarrassingly few Christians ever reach this level of authenticity; most Christians are just too busy. Busyness, the archenemy of spiritual authenticity, relates to worldliness—being consumed by society's agenda instead of walking with God. Any way you cut it, a key ingredient in authentic Christianity is time. Not leftover time, not throwaway time, but quality time. Time for contemplation, meditation, and reflection. Unhurried, uninterrupted time.

It's time to slow down, reflect, and listen. It's necessary for our spiritual health. The archenemy of spirituality is busyness. I really believe that.

Slowing is a spiritual issue of trust.

When God created this world, he finished his work in six days, and rested the seventh to give us an example. I believe that Christians are no longer required to observe the Sabbath as a law, but rather as a principle. You may disagree with me on this. It's good and proper to rest and cease from our labors one day in seven. But I'll tell you why its hard to do this. We have a hard time believing that the world is going to go on just fine even when we're resting. When we're not busy working with customers, troubleshooting, or selling, it's hard to believe that everything will continue smoothly.

Why do you think we have such a hard time slowing down for even half an hour or an hour to pray and spend time with God? We believe that if we don't get down to real business, our lives and businesses are going to suffer. Slowing down to spend time with God is an issue of trust. The urgent demands our attention—like phone calls and crises—while prayer and calmness do not. The important is often lost in the tyranny of the urgent.

The spiritual disciplines we're looking at, as a path to greater spirituality, cannot be rushed. You cannot rush prayer, celebration, confession, worship. They're important and crucial, but you have to slow to experience them.

How to Slow

So how are we to slow? If slowing is so critical to our spirituality and walk with God, how do we proceed?

Change your attitude toward rushing.

Slow Down and Get More Done — that's the wonderful title of a book sitting on my shelf, and it captures a profound truth. Research shows that Type A personalities who rush don't achieve more than those who work steadily.

It's time to overcome the deception that busyness equals effectiveness. Here's a liberating truth to embrace: God hasn't given you more tasks than time to complete them. Think about it – why would God burden you with an impossible workload?

The math is simple: you have 168 hours every week, and that's enough. You don't need to rush through life. The key isn't moving faster; it's changing how you think about time itself.

Take steps to slow down all day.

Don't just slow down to do your devotions; slow down your entire life. Don't be like a hamster on a wheel. Live like Jesus, who never rushed and never was frantically trying to catch up. Someone suggested we drive in the slow lane on the highway for a month. You might arrive five minutes later, but it can improve your mood. Declare a fast from honking – put your horn on a vow of silence. For a week, eat your food slowly – chew at least fifteen times before each swallow. In the grocery store, look carefully to see which line is the longest and get in it. Let the person go ahead of you. Go through one day without a watch. You get the idea – deliberately choose waiting. And as you do so, you'll be telling God that you are trusting him to enable you to accomplish all that you need to get done.

Get alone.

This is really a separate discipline, the discipline of solitude, but it's necessary. Jesus went to the wilderness for forty days of solitude at the beginning of his ministry. He sought solitude after hearing of John the Baptist's death, when selecting his disciples, after healing a leper, and after his followers began their ministry. Slowing down and getting alone helps to free ourselves from the thinking of society and the external pressures we face. It's beneficial to spend time alone with God daily and to set aside entire days or parts of days for this purpose every few months or each year.

At the very least, slow down during your time apart with God every day.

If you're going to do one thing, just set aside a certain time every day that you declare to be a hurry-free zone. Don't answer the phone. Don't multitask and try to do anything else but one thing: spend that time with God. Read his Word and pray. A number of people have found that journaling helps. Don't try to write anything profound, but just write out your prayers to God. Journaling for five to ten minutes helps calm our thoughts and reduce mental stress. Write out your prayers. But just spend at least some time alone with God as your personal, daily hurry-free zone.

Here are four suggestions: change your attitude towards hurry, slow down throughout the day, spend time alone, and establish a daily hurry-free zone. I want to challenge you before we leave to take one of these and to put it into practice this week.