The devil has a hand in what is done in haste.
Turkish proverb
Busy people often feel they must hurry to get everything done they need to do, but I believe that if we must constantly hurry to get it all done, we are doing too much. Most people today say they have too much to do and lament the stress they are under, but they forget they made their schedule, and they are the only ones who can change it. Do we really have to do all the things that we do, or could we easily eliminate a few of them and be able to slow down and live life at a pace that could be enjoyed? I think we all know the answer to that question. Of course we can do less if we truly want to.
When we see the span of a person’s life in print or on a tombstone, it starts with the year of their birth and ends with the year of their death. The only thing in between those two dates is a dash. Perhaps the dash is there because that is what our life seems like. We dash through everything, and before we know it, life is coming to an end and we may not have enjoyed it at all.
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.
Søren Kierkegaard
Much of what we hurry to do is done because we think if we do it at that moment, we will enjoy life at some time in the future. I suggest we slow down and begin to enjoy life now!
My experience is that God is not in a hurry. He seems to take His time about everything. He is not late, but He usually isn’t early, and He expects us to be patient while we wait. Right now I am looking through a large glass door at trees, grass, flowers, and white birds that fly through the area occasionally. As I look, I realize that nature is not in a hurry, yet everything is accomplished that needs to be done.
People who enjoy being outside say they like nature because it is peaceful. I like it because it reminds me of God and His creation. I love the peace it brings. A leisurely walk through nature is helpful to our soul as well as our body. But how often do we take the time to do it? Some people walk or run for exercise, and they may enjoy the benefit they get from it, but that is quite different from walking just to enjoy God’s creation and the peace it brings. Make a decision not to hurry past God’s creation and never take time to notice, enjoy, and appreciate it.
For the past several years I have made an effort to learn how to enjoy everything that I do, and in order to do that I have to keep reminding myself to slow down. I might be referred to as a quick person. I make quick decisions, I move from one thing to another quickly, and occasionally I am moving so fast that I don’t remember what I did. My daughter teasingly has asked me to wait until she parks the car to take off my seat belt and open the door to get out. If we are shopping together I can be in the store while she is still getting out of the car. If I don’t keep reminding myself to slow down, I find my mind is usually one step ahead of where I am.
Dave rarely hurries, my son-in-law rarely hurries, and I do know a few other people like them, but most people are in a hurry, and sadly they are not even sure where they are headed in life. If you and I want to break the hurry habit, we will have to make changes in our lifestyle and mind-set. Good habits drive out bad ones; therefore, focus on staying peaceful and patient and hurry will eventually be a thing of the past.
You really don’t have to do everything that everyone wants you to do, and it is perfectly acceptable to say no. Protect your peace by refusing to overload your schedule. As soon as you start feeling pressured to do more than you know you can do peacefully, let that be your overload alarm. Just as an alarm clock signals us to get up and start the day, let your overload alarm be your signal to say no to whatever you must in order to remain peaceful. One of the people I have to say no to is myself. Sometimes I want to do things myself that cause me to feel pressured and I have to say, “Joyce, your peace is more important than this thing you want to do.” Quite often we are our own worst enemy. We may want to be involved in everything that everyone we know is involved in, but it may not be best for us. If you follow wisdom, you can remain peaceful even when everyone you know is stressed from hurrying.
When making appointments that can quickly fill up all of your days, be sure to make appointments with yourself for rest and relaxation. Take time to evaluate your schedule often, and if there are things on it that are not bearing good fruit for you or that you no longer think you should be doing, eliminate them. Ask yourself if what you are doing is worth what you are doing to yourself in order to do it.
God is not in a hurry. If we hurry, we are likely to run right past Him and then wonder where He went. Learn to live in God’s divine rhythm. Live at a pace that allows you to do what you do patiently and peacefully.
St. Francis de Sales said, “Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
As I ponder what the benefits of hurrying are, I honestly cannot think of any. But I can quickly think of several disadvantages. Continual hurrying is bad for our health. It places stress on us, and we all know what that does. Hurrying harms our relationships. We either never take time to develop any, or if we do have friends, we don’t take time to truly listen to them or meet their needs. We often ignore our family in the pursuit of accomplishing all the things we have to do. We are too busy to listen to the kids when they try to tell us something, too busy to visit our elderly parents who are lonely, and too busy to put time into our marriage that will surely fall apart someday if we don’t. I have already mentioned one of the huge disadvantages of hurrying, and that is that we don’t enjoy anything we are doing. Life goes by in a blur, and at the end of it we will regret that we didn’t do less and enjoy it more.
In fact, I daresay that many of the things we regarded as a waste of our time will be the very things that we treasure most in years to come. How many mothers do you know with grown children who would give anything to be able to sit with their little child and be regaled with every single thing that happened that day? How many wives would love nothing more than to watch endless reruns of old Star Trek episodes with their husband—if only he were there. How many of us will regret the times that we didn’t call our mom just to say hi or drop by for a brief visit?
Every time we do one of those things, we are adding to our bank account. That account is not comprised of dollars to spend in later years. It is comprised of memories that we can enjoy over and over in the future.
Being in a hurry causes us to miss the truly important things in life. It makes us grouchy, impatient with people and things, and quick to display anger, and our excuse is always that we are busy and in a hurry, as if that pardons our wrong behavior. Impatience is merely internal hurry. We have to continually think and plan to try to get everything done we think we need to do. We are rushing in our soul, and when anyone or anything isn’t moving as fast as we are, we display an impatient attitude.
For example, if I am in a hurry and Dave wants to tell me about the ball game from the night before, something I am not all that interested in anyway, I will almost always get impatient with him. Or if I am in a hurry and something mechanical isn’t working the way it should, I feel very irritated and impatient and often find myself yelling at a hunk of metal. Have you ever become angry with your computer or cell phone and called it stupid? I have. I urge you to slow down and break the hurry habit before you do damage to yourself, the people around you, and the good plan that God has for you.
So many people hurry today that we may not even realize it is abnormal, but it is. It was never God’s intention for us to rush through anything and have our soul in knots due to the stress of hurrying. Hurry is a peace-stealer, and one of the most precious gifts Jesus has left us is His peace. Without it, life is not worth living as far as I am concerned.
Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]
John 14:27
The message in this verse of Scripture is clear. Jesus has left us His peace, but we must be responsible to arrange our lives in such a way that we can enjoy it. It is a gift Jesus has given freely, but we can totally miss the benefits of it unless we value it greatly. What could you change in your life that would immediately give you more peace?
If we know what to do and don’t do it, then there is nothing that can be done to help us. We often pray for peace, but are we doing our part? God doesn’t do everything for us, but He will show us what to do and then give us the ability to do it if we are willing. Once we know what to do, it is best to not procrastinate but to take action and get it done. Soon but not now often becomes never. When you know what you need to do, get moving and do it. Putting things off leaves them hanging around to nag us, but completing them gives us a feeling of tidy satisfaction. When there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it any smaller. If we don’t put things off, we won’t be pressured by having to hurry to do them at the last minute.
If there are no benefits to hurrying, then why do it? Oh, sure, sometimes we have to move a little faster to get to an appointment on time because we had something happen we didn’t plan for, but that is entirely different from living in a hurry all the time. And even those times when we need to hurry to get somewhere on time probably could have been avoided had we planned better.
If you have a serious hurry habit, you will probably need to locate the roots of your problem. Hurry may just be a bad habit, but it can also be the fruit of procrastination. People who procrastinate and delay—who always wait until the last minute to do things—will always be in a hurry. Learn to live with margin. That means to allocate more time to get ready to do things and get places than you think you might need. Then, if something happens that you didn’t expect to happen, you will be prepared.
I am very focused and despise wasting time, so I tend to not leave much room between appointments or events, and that has often caused me to feel rushed. If anything at all goes wrong with my perfect plan, then my whole day can be off in its well-planned timing. I have learned through experiencing many frustrating days that the best plan is to leave room (margin) for the unexpected things. In other words, I have learned to expect the unexpected. If your plan for the day isn’t working, make a phone call and change something if that will keep you from having to hurry. Declare war on hurry, and stay in the battle until you have detected and defeated every enemy of your peace.
A few years ago I wrote a devotional called Starting Your Day Right, and it is one of our best-selling books. Why? Because people realize that if they can start their day right, the rest of it will go much better. If you need to break the hurry habit, say good morning to Jesus when you wake up and then declare, “I will not hurry today. I will do things today at a pace that enables me to remain peaceful, patient, and able to enjoy each task.” Any time you feel yourself beginning to hurry, say it again, and again and again if that is what you have to do. This confession would be much better than saying, “I am in a hurry,” about twenty times a day.
This can and should be done with any habit you are working on. If you are forming the habit of being a decisive person, then when you wake up, after greeting the Lord say, “Today I will make decisions. I am wise, I am led by the Holy Spirit, and I will not procrastinate.” This is much better than saying throughout the day, “I have such a hard time making decisions.”
Don’t forget to practice the God habit, because the forming of all other good habits depends on it! Spend time with God and ask for His help at the beginning of the day. Doing these things will help you get your day started right.