I was reading this evening from John Ortberg’s book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, and got caught up in a chapter talking about ‘hurry’. It is convicting to me and I thought I’d allow you to share in my guilt. Here are a few quotes.
“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”
Those who have hurry sickness “are haunted by the fear that there are just not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done. We will read faster, talk faster, and when listening, nod faster to encourage the talker to accelerate. We will find ourselves chafing whenever we have to wait.”
The lives of the hurry-sick people lack simplicity.
Hurry results in what Lewis Grant calls sunset fatigue, which is when we are just too tired, or too drained, or too preoccupied to love the people to whom we have made the deepest promises. And,
- You find yourself rushing even when there’s no reason to;
- There is an underlying tension that causes sharp words or sibling quarrels;
- You set up mock races (“OK kids, let’s see who can take a bath fastest”) that are really about your own need to get through it;
- You sense a loss of gratitude and wonder.
Ortberg’s conclusion is that those afflicted with hurry sickness must learn to slow down, seek solitude, and quiet their soul. He urges us to “ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.”
You mean, like, hurry up and eliminate the hurry?