Hurry
One of the most striking differences from living in Los Angeles to living in Birmingham is the background noise. In LA, you could always hear the drone of cars and the whir of helicopters overhead. Recently, on a walk with Mary Evelyn, I noticed how quiet our neighborhood was and the sense of peace that came with it.
Brian Pitts put me onto a book,
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,
by a guy named John Mark Comer. The title is taken from the well-known author,
Dallas Willard
, who once said, “you must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life… because hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day.” In a similar way
Corrie ten Boom
quipped, “if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.”
I think part of my own discomfort in disruptions of the last week, and the ones inevitably ahead, has been the screeching halt of the “normal” activities of my life. The constant “noise” of rushing from one task to the next has been drastically altered. This global pandemic brings about real challenges. For many people these days have been and will be hard—what a unique chance the church has to minister to our world. And I wonder if in the midst of it all we might be able to break an addiction to “hurry.” I wonder if we might just get a chance to slow down a bit. To connect with God in a new way. To “be still and know” God in a new way. I cannot wait for the day we all get to be together again. Until then, may you enjoy a nice quiet stroll with the God who loves you.
Larry McCutcheon
