What’s The Hurry, Christians?

A breakout session with author, Claudia Barba, at a ladies event I recently attended convicted me in a big way. She discussed hurry, and everything she said about it resonated with me. I am in a hurry. Every day. All the time. But why? Do I need to be? Is it good for my Christian walk to always feel rushed? Is it even a good testimony?

Christians In A Hurry

When someone asks me how I’m doing, the answer is always the same. “I’m tired.” I can’t seem to stop myself. But the fact of the matter is that I am tired. I eat too few vegetables, exercise infrequently, sleep minimally, and have five kids. What else could I be but tired? As I look around, though, I see I’m not the only exhausted face in the crowd. Ladies, we all look like we need a break…

What are we doing that makes us so busy? Oh, let me count the ways.

1. Raising kids

2. Helping/supporting our husbands

3. Cooking

4. Cleaning

5. Working

6. Hobbies (Some of y’all prioritize having one of these, or at least, that’s what I’m told.)

7. Bible studies

8. Babysitting

9. Play dates

10. Planning parties/events for church

11. Maintaining friendships

12. Laundry

13. Doctor appointments

14. Lessons of varying kinds

15. Sport, sports, sports

16. Various teaching ministries for women and children

17. Taking care of a crisis in your life

18. Helping with someone else’s crisis

Seriously, that list is just getting started. Everyone’s life looks a little different, but so many of us have one thing in common. We keep saying “yes” to things. Some of it is not negotiable. We all gotta eat, am I right? But did you know that you don’t have to attend every church event? Check this out. You can prayerfully consider participating in a ministry and then land at “no.” People do this! Really!

Would you do me a favor? Think of all the things in your life that you are doing. What roles do you play?

My guess is that your list of responsibilities is pretty big, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you feel like you are in a constant state of hurry just to keep up with everything you “have to” do. Meanwhile, you probably never get everything done you set out to accomplish on any given day. Sound true for you?

Yup, me too.

Why We Hurry

You guys, I think this is a compulsion for some of us. If we see any white space in our calendar, then we have to fill it up. Certainly, we weren’t born that way. If anything, children are masters of wasting time, not filling it with purposeful activities (and busy work).

I believe our need to be constantly busy and rushing from one thing to another is being taught to us from the world and in our Christian circles.

The World’s Influence

Let’s look at the world’s viewpoint on hurry. Simply stated, the world worships busyness.

The most financially successful people (e.g., Elon Musk) in the world will tell you that they work over one hundred hours a week. They are always working and planning for what’s next in their business. I recently saw an interview with Taylor Swift (arguably the biggest pop star in the world right now) in which she described frequently zoning out in conversations with her friends because she was writing songs based on the conversation…as they spoke! Then, of course, there are social media influencers who treat every moment of their lives as an opportunity to monetize their experiences with videos and pictures. Essentially, having free time and allowing for boundaries is lazy by the world’s standards. Always. Be. Doing.

The Christian Influence

The Lady Who Is Definitely Judging You

The world isn’t alone in its myopic focus on making oneself busy and hurrying from one obligation to the next. Christians push this lifestyle, too. Tell me I’m not alone here. Have you ever gone to a church with someone who compares what you do at church to what she does? That woman generally thinks you’re not doing enough, and she wants you to do everything she does. Look around your church, and you’ll find more than one of these members floating around.

And the expectations are even higher if you’re in ministry. How dare you not volunteer literally all your free time away. Mental, spiritual, and physical health? Who needs it? Um, actually, I do.

The Pastor In Need Of Volunteers

Maybe your pastor guilts members for not doing more. I should take a moment to defend some pastors concerning this issue. Many pastors do, in fact, carry the majority of the burden themselves because the church members refuse to lift a finger. This is not what I’m talking about, though. I’m referring to pastors who pull some folks aside to tell them the ministry in which they must participate.

“Our nursery needs volunteers, and you have a baby. Is it really fair for you to drop off your child and not volunteer your time to work here with everyone’s babies? That’s a bit selfish, don’t you think? God needs you to serve. You want to serve the Lord, I hope.”

A Culture Of Hurry

Other believers have grown up in a Christian culture of doing. The more you do, the more spiritual you are. Any Christian who doesn’t need to hurry from morning Bible study to delivering lunches to shut-ins to picking up the neighbor’s kids from daycare to making dinner for the community meal to working in the nursery during the mid-week prayer service…really needs to reflect on her weak relationship with the Lord. Imagine growing up thinking that your faith is only as good as your busyness!

Hurry Hurts Us

Constantly being in a hurry is simply not good for our well-being. I feel like I should confess something before I continue. I’m currently hurrying. Literally, I’m trying to get about seven or eight major things done, like, right now. Consequently, everything I do has a sense of hurry or being rushed. I’m desperately trying to get to the next thing. That’s my week, though. We have a big event this weekend, and I’m overloaded with responsibilities. The good news is I don’t have to live in this state of being. And, oh, I’m so thankful for that!

What happens to people who are always hurrying through their lives? Does being in a rush affect them? I think it does. I believe so because of my personal experience and from witnessing it with my own two eyes.

When We Hurry:

1. We aren’t present in the here and now.

2. We miss out on the little moments because we “don’t have time.”

3. Stress is our middle name.

4. We stress out the people around us.

5. We eat poorly.

6. The tasks are completed but not as well as they could be.

7. We miss ministry opportunities.

8. With little to no margin, we have little to no room for spontaneity.

9. We often don’t enjoy what we are hurrying to do.

10. Our chaotic, nonstop life doesn’t reflect Christ to those around us.

The Bible And Hurrying

As I said before, Claudia Barba convicted me about my constant hurry, and the two most impactful things she discussed was that Jesus did not hurry during His ministry on Earth and the importance of the Sabbath.

An Unhurried Start To Ministry

Think about this. Jesus didn’t start His ministry until He was thirty years old. Is that the picture of someone in a rush to get things done? No! He wasn’t being lazy or wasting time either. The Lord did all things in the Father’s timing. His life was dedicated to the will of the Father, not the hours of a day. We would do well to consider if the rushing around we are doing is God’s will for our lives or just is filling our days. Perhaps, God wants us to wait longer before taking on certain roles.

Jairus And The Dying Daughter

Luke 8:40-56 recounts the story of Jairus and his dying twelve-year-old daughter. He asked Jesus to help his daughter, but Jesus didn’t snatch Jairus by the hand and run to the girl. Nope. Instead, He took the time to interact with a woman who needed Him to heal her.

“And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”

Luke 8:43-48

Jesus didn’t just keep on moving to His next objective when He noticed the woman had touched Him. We would understand if he had. I mean, he was on His way to save a girl’s life. He chose differently, though. He called this woman to Him, comforted her, and displayed God’s power for all who were there to see.

Meanwhile, Jairus’s daughter died, but Jesus knew what He would do next. Therefore, they continued on to Jairus’s house, but as far as we know there was still no hurry. Jesus gave time to those around Him who needed it. He traveled with purpose, but He didn’t rush around like a madman.

The Samaritan Woman At The Well

John 4 tells the familiar story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus stopped for a rest during his travels and was predictably thirsty. He asked a Samaritan woman to fetch Him water from the well. This interaction is filled with plenty of talking points about her life, where Samaritans stood in the social hierarchy, the meaning of living water, etc. For our purposes, though, I’m more concerned with how hurried their interaction was.

Jesus and His disciples were headed from Judea to Galilee. The trip would take approximately two and a half days to walk. (Thankful for cars much?) The walk would be tiring, and anyone would be glad to finish as soon as possible. Jesus, however, was not in the rush most of us would be in to leave Samaria in order to continue the journey.

After their conversation, the Samaritan woman understood He was the Christ and immediately told others.

“The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”

John 4:28-29

Someone in a hurry might be satisfied with what occurred and be ready to move on. But Jesus did not go away after He encountered the men the Samaritan woman spoke to because they asked Him to stay.

“So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. And many more believed because of his own word; And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. Now after two days he departed thence, and went into Galilee.”

John 4:40-43

Jesus stopped for a drink, and He ended up staying there for two days to minister to the people of Samaria. He had plenty of reason to hurry along and leave Samaria. After all, the Jews hated the Samaritans. If a Jew must travel through Samaria, then he ought to do so as quickly as possible. However, the Lord chose to slow down and spend time with the Samaritans. Speaking truth to them far outweighed any schedule or prejudices that may surround the situation.

Do we slow down and even change our plans to accommodate a ministry opportunity that arises? Or are we too hurried and self-led to notice the divine appointments in our lives?

Sabbath

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

Genesis 2:2-3

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

Exodus 20:8-11

The Sabbath was given as a commandment, as seen in Exodus. Christian, are you under the Law? No, you’re not. You can’t live up to it. None of us can. That is why Jesus came to die for our sins and defeat death by rising from the grave on the third day. But none of that means believers shouldn’t strive to follow the 10 Commandments. In fact, Christians regularly call breaking one a sin.

The 10 Commandments (Simply Stated)

1. You shall have no other gods before me.

2. You shall make no idols.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

4. Keep the Sabbath day holy.

5. Honor your father and your mother.

6. You shall not murder.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

8. You shall not steal.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10. You shall not covet.

Tell me, which other commandments here would you say are not a big deal to ignore? So, why do we treat keeping the Sabbath day holy as some sort of optional thing “super spiritual” people do?

How Do I Keep The Sabbath?

Like anything, we can take good things too far and be legalistic. The Saturday or Sunday debate doesn’t really interest me. I also don’t care to discuss how much physical work, cooking, shopping, etc. that people “should” do on the Sabbath. I’m concerned about the heart of the Sabbath. The point is to be in unity with God and other believers. We should rest in Him and take a break from, for a lack of a better way to say it, the daily grind. Our Sabbath is not like every other day. Well, it shouldn’t be.

The Sabbath looks different from person to person. I have friends who could sew all day while meditating on God, listening to Christian music, and reading God’s Word. For me, the sewing portion would feel like torture and a great deal of work. What is a bobbin, anyway? One woman’s Sabbath is another woman’s stress, I suppose.

 As a pastor’s wife, I don’t see Sunday as a true Sabbath rest. Most ministry families I’ve spoken to about this feel exactly the same way. Many of us try to take another day of the week for that much needed rest. In my household, that often looks like a very deliberate family day with our children. We might go for a hike on a nearby trail, have a bonfire, or just have a pajama day and spend time together at home playing games and whatnot.

Make the Sabbath work for you. If you struggle keeping it, then remind yourself that God demonstrated the Sabbath to us in the second chapter of Genesis. He dedicated an entire day to rest during the week of creation. Don’t think for a moment that God needed to rest. He was showing us something important. Don’t be in such a hurry that you neglect an essential part of the Christian life.

Final Thought

Part of me feels like a fraud for writing this post. One of my greatest personal struggles is rest. I’m the kind of person who busies herself while “resting.” I’m not sure that I’m ever fully still and present in the moment. But isn’t that even more reason to bring up this topic? I need to work on it. I admit it. May I encourage some of you to reevaluate how fast-paced you live? Take a step back and honestly look at how much of a hurry you are in. It may surprise you.

So, tell me about it. How much do you hurry?

Image courtesy of Towfiqu barbhuiya via Unsplash.