The smartest and best man I have known [Dallas Willard] jotted down some thoughts about hurry; I think they were posted in his kitchen when he died. “Hurry,” he wrote, “involves excessive haste or a state of urgency. It is associated with words such as hurl, hurdle, hurly-burly (meaning ‘uproar’), and hurricane.” He defined it as a “state of frantic effort one falls into in response to inadequacy, fear, and guilt.” The simple essence of hurry is too much to do! The good of being delivered from hurry is not simply pleasure but the ability to do calmly and effectively—with strength and joy—that which really matters. “We should take it as our aim,” he wrote, “to live our lives entirely without hurry. We should form a clear intention to live without hurry. One day at a time. Trying today.” —John Ortberg
Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. —Dallas Willard

Both sin and busyness have the same effect on us – they

our connection to God, to others, and even to ourselves.

How often do we answer the question, “How’re you doing?” with “Oh good—just

”?

God did not create hurry. —Finnish proverb

Love always takes

, because it’s an investment in the other person.

Love is patient… —1 Corinthians 13:4 (ESV)
To walk with Jesus is to walk with a slow, unhurried pace. Hurry is the death of prayer and only impedes and spoils our work. It never advances it. —Walter Adams
We, for every kind of reason, good and bad, are distracting ourselves into spiritual oblivion. It is not that we have anything against God, depth, and spirit, we would like these, it is just that we are habitually too preoccupied to have any of these show up on our radar screens. We are more busy than bad, more distracted that nonspiritual, and more interested in the movie theater, the sports stadium, and the shopping mall and the fantasy life they produce in us than we are in church. Pathological busyness, distraction, and restlessness are major blocks today within our spiritual lives.—Ronald Rolheiser
For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.—John Ortberg

Some Significant Turning Points In History:

• 1370 – The first public

  Reveal Answer
  tower was erected in Cologne, Germany, signifying the beginning of the end of natural time.
  
  

• 1879 – Edison invented the

  Reveal Answer
  , making it much easier to stay up past sunset.
  
  

• 2007 – Steve Jobs released the

  Reveal Answer
  .
  
  
  

The over-busy, hurried life has become the new

.

Jesus: For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? —Mark 8:36 (ESV)

We’re struggling with time, but the answer isn’t

time.

We have a very hard time accepting our

.

¹Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” ²And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” ⁴But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ⁶So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.—Genesis 3:1-6 (ESV)

The first people wanted to “be like

,” and we’ve given into that temptation ever since.

The Bible and real life show us over and over that we can’t do it

!

With the limitation of time, which we all share, it means God has never expected or asked us to do

.

Life is a series of choices. Every yes is a thousand nos. Every activity we give our time to is a thousand other activities we can’t give our time to. Because, duh: we can’t be in two places at once.—John Mark Comer
Jesus: “Come, follow me,….” —Matthew 4:19 (NIV)
Jesus: “²⁸Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”—Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)

The “yoke” was a way for a seasoned, veteran animal to help a young or inexperienced one carry a heavy load in a way that distributed the load and allowed the experienced animal to model and teach the younger animal

to manage it.

Jesus: “²⁸Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. ²⁹Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. ³⁰Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” —Matthew 11:28-30 (Message)

“‘Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.’”

Jesus doesn’t say, “

with me;” he says, “walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it,” because he’s calling us to a journey, a process, a

Reveal Answer

.

In this truth lies the secret of the easy yoke: the secret involves living as [Jesus] lived in the entirety of his life—adopting his overall life-style…. Our mistake is to think that following Jesus consists in loving our enemies, going the “second mile,” turning the other cheek, suffering patiently and hopefully—while living the rest of our lives just as everyone else around us does…. It’s a strategy bound to fail.—Dallas Willard
if [we] want to experience the life of Jesus, [we] have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.—John Mark Comer

Jesus says to take up his yoke is to

ourselves to him, day and night, at home, work, school, and play, on vacation and at the ballpark.

Disciplines for Future Weeks: Silence & Solitude, Sabbath, Simplicity, and Slowing

²²But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control.…—Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

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Next Week: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, Part 2: Silence & Solitude

• Info about “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” Series and Groups
• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer available on Christianbook.com and Amazon.com.