Busyness and hurry seem to be our constant companions these days. When I ask, “How are you doing?”, the most common response is “busy.” We wear busy like a badge of honor. It proves that we are valuable, that we are important. Most don’t even question this, but I believe that this busyness and hurry is a massive detriment to stepping into the abundant life that Jesus has made available to us.
Dallas Willard, a prolific writer about spiritual formation, is known for telling those who want to be spiritually healthy that they need to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from their life.” This is a challenging call for modern American Christians. Eliminate hurry? How am I supposed to get everything done? Well, maybe you won’t. And that’s OK.
“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.” -John Ortberg
In the gospel of Matthew a man came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
The greatest commandment was not get more things done. It was to love God and to love people. And the unwavering truth is that to love well takes time. It isn’t rushed. If we want to love others it means spending time with them. This can happen by taking time out of our busy schedules to turn up for Community Group. It can look like calling a friend to talk instead of scrolling through Twitter again. It can mean eating lunch with a coworker instead of another working lunch in front of your computer screen.
Loving God means spending time with him. The Lord calls us to “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). How do we do this when we are running frantically from one thing to the next, barely keeping our heads above water? I don’t know. If this is our reality it may be time to reconsider our schedule and our obligations. We need to look at what is in our hearts pushing us to do, do, do - accomplish, accomplish, accomplish.
Let’s remember that an important part of Emotionally Healthy Community is doing the work of knowing ourselves and knowing God. These things can only happen as we slow down and be with God.