Leave late. Drive fast. Pray on the go. Hurry can be a way of life.
Hurry, according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, is 1a: to carry or go with haste <hurry them to the hospital>, 1b: to impel to rash or precipitate action 2a: to impel to greater speed: prod <used spurs to hurry the horse>, 2b: expedite, 2c: to perform with undue haste <hurry a minuet>
How can hurry be wicked?
Click a little farther in Merriam-Webster's and you'll find that among other things wicked is a state of being 1: morally very bad; evil, and 3b: causing or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble <a wicked storm>
Hurry harms others. If in my race through a day I notice others' faces, I often don't recognize the pain in their eyes or their voices. Worse, if I do recognize it, I am all too often callous. I might not ask, afraid of that it will cost more than I want to pay.
Hurry recently troubled my husband, who surprised me with a dream anniversary trip. Rather than enjoying the time with him from the start, I took more than a day to fret over a writing submission.
Hurry distresses writing, too. It makes a mind run shallow and words run dry.
Hurry distresses readers, too. Saturday I met my writers group, who had received the fretted-over writing. They shifted in their seats, unsure where to begin their kind criticism. The ideas, though strong, seemed like stones spanning a river. As readers they felt forced to leap from one to the next without a moment to steady themselves. They'd wanted to savor each idea, but I wouldn't have it. In short, I had offered four pages of hurry. Whatever was good in them was all but lost.
On this frozen-silent Sunday morning God pours forth speech and I return to my senses. I repent of self-centeredness, of idolizing accomplishment, of the slipshod belief that writing should come easy, and of coveting others' strengths that, if mine, would enable me to accomplish so much more. I relinquish the expectation that God support my fast-forward modus operandi and place myself under His eternal, altogether lovely rule. His words wash a weary soul.
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
(Psalm 90:1-2 NASB)
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
(Isaiah 40:22 NASB)
For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
"I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
(Isaiah 57:15 (NASB)
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and
My burden is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)
Hurry, according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, is 1a: to carry or go with haste <hurry them to the hospital>, 1b: to impel to rash or precipitate action 2a: to impel to greater speed: prod <used spurs to hurry the horse>, 2b: expedite, 2c: to perform with undue haste <hurry a minuet>
How can hurry be wicked?
Click a little farther in Merriam-Webster's and you'll find that among other things wicked is a state of being 1: morally very bad; evil, and 3b: causing or likely to cause harm, distress, or trouble <a wicked storm>
Hurry harms others. If in my race through a day I notice others' faces, I often don't recognize the pain in their eyes or their voices. Worse, if I do recognize it, I am all too often callous. I might not ask, afraid of that it will cost more than I want to pay.
Hurry recently troubled my husband, who surprised me with a dream anniversary trip. Rather than enjoying the time with him from the start, I took more than a day to fret over a writing submission.
Hurry distresses writing, too. It makes a mind run shallow and words run dry.
Hurry distresses readers, too. Saturday I met my writers group, who had received the fretted-over writing. They shifted in their seats, unsure where to begin their kind criticism. The ideas, though strong, seemed like stones spanning a river. As readers they felt forced to leap from one to the next without a moment to steady themselves. They'd wanted to savor each idea, but I wouldn't have it. In short, I had offered four pages of hurry. Whatever was good in them was all but lost.
On this frozen-silent Sunday morning God pours forth speech and I return to my senses. I repent of self-centeredness, of idolizing accomplishment, of the slipshod belief that writing should come easy, and of coveting others' strengths that, if mine, would enable me to accomplish so much more. I relinquish the expectation that God support my fast-forward modus operandi and place myself under His eternal, altogether lovely rule. His words wash a weary soul.
Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were born
Or You gave birth to the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
(Psalm 90:1-2 NASB)
It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,
And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain
And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.
(Isaiah 40:22 NASB)
For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
"I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit
In order to revive the spirit of the lowly
And to revive the heart of the contrite.
(Isaiah 57:15 (NASB)
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and
My burden is light."
(Matthew 11:28-30 NASB)
Excellent reminder! Sometimes when I feel hurried I'm more liable to forget something than if I take my time.
ReplyDeleteBesides, it reflects the wise philosophy of one of my favorite songs: "Don't Hurry, Be Wappy." Or was that song "Don't Worry, Be Happy?" =D Something like that. They're kind of related, aren't they?
Powerful. I should hurry up and implement it in my life :-)
ReplyDeleteNot really. Deadlines drive us all to distraction from the important things.
Some good thoughts!
ReplyDelete