“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry” – Dallas Willard
We are so often in a hurry. Not just busy, but eagerly anticipating the next thing: not soaking up the present. When hindsight is 20/20, don’t we all too often look back and wish we did something different. Wish we were engaged. Wish we had gone out of our way for a friend or didn’t get frustrated with the cashier at check out. We appreciate our hometowns, our families, and our friends more when we are separated. We get swallowed up by the night with our phone screens inches from our face and the constant, “I’m tired.”
We are sabotaging ourselves: setting ourselves up for failure. What consumes our mind, controls our life.
When we spend hours on Instagram, watching Netflix, and/or staying out too late, we are prioritizing those things. There are only 24 hours in the day and so we have to decide what is of the utmost priority.
As women of Christ, we are called to greater. We are called to more. We do not need to be bounded to the world’s norms. If life begins at the end of our comfort zone, then why are we content in these ways? In the end, if our relationship with our Creator is all that matters, why would we ever forgo time with Him?
As Jesus got more and more busy with his ministry, he spent more and more time in prayer. He learned the art of saying, “no” to good things and saying, “yes” to great things- the things in line with his vocation.
Imagine if we spent our free time talking with other humans, investing in knowledge, reading a book, listening to podcasts, learning a new skill or just sitting with Jesus. Imagine what we could be like! When we invest in a relationship, we see encouragement and community realized. When we invest in our bodies, we see results and elevated health. When we invest in our studies (maybe calculus is a lost cause), we have a greater understanding of the topic. BUT when we invest in social media, what is the benefit?
Yes, we are caught up in our friend’s activities, but does that make us caught up in the world?
We have invested countless hours in scrolling, yet it is one of few outlets that does not reap a positive outcome. There are so many places to invest--pick one that will reap benefits. For what consumes your mind, controls your life. What if thankfulness, wisdom and curiosity consumed our minds? Our relationship with Jesus would be on the tip of our tongues, our persona’s would exude joy, our love of others would radiate from within, and we would drip in compassion. For after all, we will receive an inheritance from the Lord as our reward (Colossians 3:23).
We must not be in a hurry. The Lord wants us to be available, not all-knowing. He wants to invest in us, so let us invest in things that will reap benefits worthy of our greater purpose.
