Two texts informing me staff were sick and not coming into the office pinged as I hurriedly left the house, my mind reworking the day. I was now running late as I slowed at the intersection, quickly looking both ways and pulled out – where did that car come from!! I slammed on the brakes and smacked into a guardian angel – at least that can be the only reason I didn’t hit the car turning in front of me. One angry driver shaking their fist at me. I didn’t blame them. I had not seen the car, a combination of sunstrike and hurry. The voice in my head quietly whispered, “slow down”. The same voice that had echoed in my readings, a leadership podcast, andJohn Mark Comer’s book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”!!
Slow down. Not something a leader does well, at least not in my world. We hurry from task to task, trying to multitask work, ministry, home and our long “to do” list. I do it every Sunday, even though I have John Maxwell’s words “walk through a crowd slowly” in my mind as I rush through the church foyer to the next task, or person on my list. We leaders like to get things done, move the ship, reach the mountain top.
My staff and I listened to a podcast with Craig Groeschel and Juliet Funt[1], “Why This One Minute Will Change your Workday”. They sat back and said, “Juliet is describing my life!” She had just run through a litany of post covid busyness that has not gone away and appears to be here to stay, describing its impact on staff. Back-to-back meetings, emails, zoom calls, long hours and no let up in the pace. One of her solutions –schedule in a “wedge”. Between meetings, between tasks deliberately, intentionally schedule 5-10 minutes of “white space” in your calendar to reflect, recharge, and prioritize your thoughts so that you can be more present for your team in the next meeting. There was a collective sigh and deep breath from my staff. For a few days, I heard them say, “I need a wedge” or “I am taking a wedge.” We laughed in that self-conscious kind of way, knowing it to be true but oh so hard to do.
“Hurry,” Dallas Willard said, “is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.”[2] It is not only the enemy of our spiritual life, but also the enemy of our whole life. We are distracted by our to do lists, our next meeting, our phones, the people around us and we are not present to the Presence of God nor to the person in front of us. Whilst on a hospital visit I met a missionary who had broken her leg. She looked at me and said, “Jesus never ran. He was never in a hurry. I was and here I am!!” We laughed but her words linger.
One never gets a sense that Jesus was flustered, distracted, distant or rushed. He was fully present to both His Father and to whatever or whoever was right in front of him. Being present, being tuned to the Father meant he said and did what he saw the Father doing. Oh, my goodness, that’s how I want to live. To live slower, to live fully present in the grateful now. Jesus described this as abiding in the vine. Abiding in the vine, results in love and fruitfulness. If you know anything about a growing vine, it is not in a hurry!
What if following Jesus, is a call to live in a slower kinder way? Is that why the Bible makes such a big deal about keeping a sabbath rhythm? Perhaps a sabbath is not just a day but also a daily practice of putting in “a wedge”. Pete Grieg writes, “the deceptively simple act of pausing, even just fora few minutes each day, can be a form of peace-making with our own battle-weary souls. Those rare people who learn to do this – who carry a quality of stillness with them through life – are attractive and authoritative because they are modelling something, whether they know it or not, of God’s own non-anxious presence in the world.”[3]
What would that look like in our daily life? In our leadership? In our family? In this current season where we are being swamped with the rush and press of the world around us, are we too busy to notice the stirrings of the Holy Spirit in our people, in our churches, in the interruptions of our lives? Do we pause long enough to see, to reflect, to re-prioritize and to respond to the life of the Spirit?
As I talk with leaders, as I sit in the coaching space, I hear the cry of the overwhelmed soul. The call to “come away to a quiet space” that Jesus invited his disciples to do continues to echo in our hearts. Will we be bold enough and courageous enough to accept his quiet invitation? If we obeyed, how many “moments” of grace and glory might we discover?
Alternatively, if hurry continues to drive us, we just might end up in a collision!
Lord, help me to live slow, to live in the unhurried, non-anxious presence of your love, joy and peace.
Kathy is a coach with the Centre for Church Leadership. She is on the pastoral team of Church Unlimited juggling administrative responsibilities with pastoral ones.Kathy has recently authored a book “Anchored: Finding Peace in the Storm” where she shares out of her own storm experiences how spiritual disciplines anchor us to Jesus.
[1] Fortune500 Advisor on Why This One Minute Will Change Your Workday | Juliet Funt |Leadership | Life.Church
[2]Quoted by John Mark Comer in his book The Relentless Elimination of Hurry”
[3]Pete Grieg, How to Hear God
