The Art of Living an Unhurried Life

I’ve been on an adventure the last few months that I will share about soon but it started with a sabbatical of sorts. I was riding high on the wave of watching my dream of writing and publishing a book come true and trying to wring out every drop I could and make good on the opportunities that I was given. I had two successful book launches in two cities, had started recording a companion podcast for the devotional; made several trips back and forth to New Orleans for family events and had a big trip planned for Utila to finish the project there that I’ve been working on since January. I had navigated several challenging seasons as a new widow and I really thought I had it all under control.

Until I didn’t.

Two weeks in my old neighborhood in New Orleans, long trips, grief that I wasn’t dealing with properly, another unexpected severe panic attack at an airport and I finally succumbed to the shifting sand under my feet.

Another setback. Another challenging season. And what felt like another failure.

I had missed the signs again. Have you ever done that? You know you need rest but not the kind that comes from sleeping in on Saturdays. Rest for your soul; rest for your mind and heart. You push through, put your head down and just work harder. If I can only make it through this season, you tell yourself. And then you realize that your whole life has become one long and busy season. There is no rest coming, no downtime waiting to allow you to take care of your heart and mind and soul.

In his book “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”, author John Mark Comer shares his story about being a pastor of a megachurch and realizing that something was very wrong in his life and that he had to make some radical changes. He shares this incredible truth from one of his trusted mentors. “Hurry, he says, “is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. Love, joy and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry.”

Living like Jesus is incompatible with hurry.

These words resonated so deeply in my soul. Reading the Gospel stories of Jesus’ life and ministry demonstrates this so clearly yet it is so missed. Jesus was never in a hurry. So much of His ministry was one interruption after another and yet He accomplished everything He set out to do.

So why do we all feel like we are always in a hurry? Always running late? Feeling like we never have enough time in the day to get done what needs to? I wish I had the time to go through all that I learned about myself from this book but I’ll share this in hopes it hits home with you as well.

Meyer Friedman, a famous cardiologist defined the modern life like this: 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.

During this season that I spoke about earlier, that is exactly what I was doing. Yes, wonderful things were happening in my life. Dreams were coming true. Goals had been met. Absolutely nothing is wrong with any of that. But as a friend told me when she saw me after a long absence in San Diego, I needed to rest and allow God to celebrate these wins with me but slowly and thoroughly. I didn’t do that but instead moved on to the next goal. What I didn’t know at the time was that I didn’t want to celebrate the dream of writing my first book because Bud was not here to celebrate it with me. I couldn’t have come to that real and powerful truth had I not slowed down long enough for God to speak to my spirit. I needed to hear Him say that it was ok to celebrate; that it took nothing away from the loss and grief that I felt; that Bud would be proud knowing I was able to finally see this come to pass in my life.

How about you, dear reader? Does your life feel like one task after another? No time to sit in silence and solitude and take in what has happened in your life. Just check off one box after another. Wrote a book. Check. Got it published. Check. Give myself time to process all that has happened because of the book. Not so much.

I started to see this taking place during my recent trip home to Utila where we are building what will be a ministry center. I got caught up in the rush and hurry (that word again) of getting the work done on time that I almost missed the real purpose of that trip. Of course God wants me to finish the building but what He wanted more was for me to listen and slow down long enough to see the needs of the people who were a part of this project. And when I did that, I had these incredible conversations with people I had never met. I heard their stories and met their families. They asked for my advice and mostly my prayers. They opened up in ways that was so unexpected. It was wonderful. God opened opportunities for to speak in new venues because of my book and new relationships were forged that brought me great joy.

There’s nothing wrong with achievement and goals. Pursuing dreams for your life is a part of finding and discovering your purpose. But we must live a lifestyle like Jesus. He was never in a hurry. How could I have missed that? Yes, I have preached and taught about the interruptions in His ministry and how profound it was to see how he dealt with them but I had never seen how many times that actually happened to Him. He had plans on where He needed to go but along the way, He stopped and listened and healed and brought salvation even if it meant that His plans took longer.

What would your life, my life, look like if we took the urgency out of it? What would our families be like if we stopped hurrying from place to place, frantically watching the clock? How would our souls prosper if we took hurry out of the equation and sat in silence, in solitude and simply matched Jesus’ pace? I know what you’re thinking. You’d never get anything accomplished. How many times have you said that you wished there were more hours in the day?

Listen to these averages from Comer’s book. The average American spends 705 hours each year on social media. 2,737 hours watching TV. How different would my life look like if even a fraction of that was spent reading the Word, in prayer and worship? Discovering my purpose by pursuing God fully?

I realized that I missed what the quiet solitude with the Father after my accomplishments are met would do for my next season. It’s where I found my balance again, my rest from what it cost me to be so vulnerable and open by writing the devotional.

I know I can’t be alone in this. You’ve set a goal, worked hard, met it but the glory of it doesn’t last as long as you thought it would. Could it possibly be that what is missing is time with God? For me that answer was a resounding “yes”.

Now that I am pursuing that rest for my soul, slowing down and listening, I feel like it’s time to set my sights back on my next goal. So many of you have asked (and rightfully so because I announced it many months ago) when the podcast would come out. I am presently going back into the recording studio (aka the closet). And I promise as soon as I have it ready to air, you will be the first to know!

But until then, slow down, listen, get alone and hear what God is trying to tell your weary heart. His yoke is easy and He offers us rest that is always just what we need.