The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
Part three: Practices for unhurrying your life
Slowing (2|4)
Pages 225-229 (END READING AT: …to keep the trajectory of my life between the lines and on the path (read way) to life.)
Matthew 16:24-25 (NIV) “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”
Proverbs 14:29 (NIV) Whoever is patient has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly.
John Mark Comer says it’s wise to regularly deny ourselves from getting what we want. That way, when somebody else denies us getting what we want, we don’t respond with anger. We’re already acclimated. We don’t have to get our way to be happy.
What is your response to this statement?
Are you anti-rule and anti-schedule, or do you find comfort in structure? Or do you vacillate between the two?
The next six rules (or call them boundaries if that makes you feel better about them) are all about our biggest attention-sucking, dopamine dispensing, symbiote addiction (read in the voice of Gollum) …the precious. The previous rules about driving were possibly challenging and provoking; now it’s going to feel like a personal attack. I invite you to pause. Relax your body. Breathe in a long cleansing breath for four seconds. Hold it for four seconds and then exhale a controlled breath for four seconds.
5. Show up ten minutes early for an appointment, sans phone.
6. Get in the longest checkout line at the grocery store (and leave your phone in your purse, bag, or pocket - If you pay with your phone, don’t touch it until you have to).
7. Turn your smartphone into a dumbphone.
8. Get a flip phone (or Punkt phone or a Light Phone II). Or ditch your cell phone altogether.
9. Parent your phone; put it to bed before you and make it sleep in.
10. Keep your phone off until after your morning quiet time.
How are you doing? That was a lot. Did you make it this far or stop at rule 7? This is a way of slowing down life and dealing with the hurry in the soul. I give a few minutes to come off the drug of speed. What happens when you come off a drug? It can get ugly and scary. That is a good indicator of what is happening on the inside of us. It’s a way to take an inventory of emotional and spiritual vitals. Prayer and scripture are an antidote to the drug of speed. Prayer can set (or reset) your emotional equilibrium, and scripture can set (or reset) your view of the world.
What is your response to this statement?
If your reflexive response is “I don’t have time or capacity to do that,” then you are addicted to the drug of speed, and you need an intervention and possibly rehab. I recommend at least a 24-hour detox from screens to start.