No Hurries



Last week at work, I read over an article for a marketing campaign. After review, my boss told me the article didn’t fit the campaign because it pertained to Europe, not America. I missed that in my initial skimming of the article. (even though it clearly stated ‘UK’ at least 15 times). I sent an email the other day about a special event, and neglected to state the time of the event. (I’m willing to bet there will be typos in this blog after I’ve published it.)

The other day I went to the grocery store with a partial list, and not my typical coupon organization. It was a last minute decision to stop there on my way home, figuring I’d get it done early. Only, while I was there, I wasn’t paying proper attention to the sale prices verses what coupons I had, and long-story short, I ended up paying $8.00 more than necessary.

And this past weekend, I had my hands full while walking through the foyer, and my giant horse of a dog stopped right in front of me. Trying to avoid falling on and over him, injuring us both, I grabbed for the wall, knocking down a ceramic cross wall hanging and breaking it. Then the next day as I was cleaning up my flower beds, I (assume) lost my balance and fell in the road as I tossed out the weeds. I placed my hand down to help break my fall, and for a moment thought I’d broken it. (I could continue this paragraph indefinitely, as I walk into walls, furniture, trip, etc. on an almost hourly basis).

Why do I tell you this? (Besides hopefully making you feel a little bit better about yourself) Because I’ve come to realize that I’m always in a hurry. Everything I do is done in urgency. Maybe my impatience plays a hand in this. Or my overwhelmed plate full of tasks. Possibly I’m a careless and haphazard person. Maybe I have attention and focusing issues. Or maybe I’m just lazy. But the lesson I’m learning is that I need to slow down. Why do I have to rush to get everything done?

In this past week’s aggravations at my mistakes because I rushed through tasks, I’ve begun to understand that I need to slow down some. (Notice I noted ‘some’—this is going to be an on-going struggle for me) God never intended for us to always be busy and in a hurry. Why do we tend to think we have to always be doing something, or getting things done as fast as we can—only to do more stuff? We’re missing out on all that God entails for us in this life because we’re so busy. Holiness can’t be rushed or instantaneous. The way of God is the way of waiting. (Psalm 46:10; Hebrews 4:11) Take a breath before completing tasks. Stay focused on what you’re doing, and for Whom you’re doing them for. (Colossians 3:23) Do you know what you’re missing when you’re rushing through life? Life. The ordinary and the extraodinary. Enjoy each piece of it, as this life is short. (Ecclesiastes 9:9)

In my hurriedness, I end up making mistakes; mistakes that cost me money, time and energy. If I’d gone slower on the above tasks, I wouldn’t have had to redo my workload twice; I wouldn’t have wasted $8.00; and I wouldn’t have fallen, twice. (Well, yeah, I probably would have- I’m a klutz.) But in my efforts to save time, I wasted it, and so much more.

There are 24 hours in a day; 7 days in a week (and so forth); yet we try to stretch them into more than they were inteneded for. Do we forget that even God rested on the seventh day? (Genesis 2:2) (How about diving a little deeper into that and notice that the other six days, all of the work that He had done was ‘Good’ (Genesis 1:31); not ‘good enough’; not ‘I have other things to do’… but it was ‘Good’. Can we say that all we accomplish in our busy-ness is ‘good’? (I know I can’t)

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