Hurry!

When I was a kid there was a sign in Dr. Bahr’s office behind the receptionist that read, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” It was the 60s, when all the technological breakthroughs were happening, enabling us to put more on our calendars because we could work faster and get more done in less time. In the late 1960s a study was done by the U.S. Senate because of the increased productivity created by computers. Due to these great technological advances they determined that, by 1985 people might have to choose between working 22 hours a week, 27 weeks a year, or retiring at age 38! Obviously that didn't happen. Instead, with the extra time, we simply found more to do. This desire to achieve and accomplish more created an interesting phenomenon in the human body; an illness, if you will. There is an actual medical condition called Hurry Sickness and is defined as:  “a continuous struggle to accomplish more things and participate in more events in less time, frequently in the face of opposition, real or imagined, from other people.” It’s really a thing!

In our society we seem to feel like we have to Go! Go! Go!  We are unfulfilled if we aren’t moving at all times, accomplishing something for someone and feeling guilty or lazy when we sit still. Among the “Christian community,” we have learned to rationalize busyness as a pseudo spirituality. There is a world to reach and limited time to do it OR there is a whole Bible to learn so we send our kids to every camp and VBS and religious experience within 25 miles of our home. If we embrace the athletic culture, we lean toward having our kids in multiple sports so they can find what they are best at, signing them up in more than one league or sport at a time so they get more practice and pushing them to perform on a daily basis in addition to their school work and responsibilities at home.

The phenomenon that I have observed is that the household responsibilities get pushed to the background. I suppose that’s because we are seldom home and nobody has time to come to our house so the mess is unknown to the world. Apparently we assume that our kids will magically figure out how to scramble an egg, fold their own laundry, live by a budget, put away their own belongings and maintain a vehicle when they become adults. Many kids today are not being taught to manage their life and accomplish the daily activities that will turn them into self-sufficient adults because there simply isn’t time for that. We aren’t actually in our homes long enough to do that, so rather than teaching them to pick up after themselves and use a vacuum, we work more hours in order to afford a housekeeper to carry that responsibility and instead of teaching them to prepare a proper meal, we make a less healthy choice and drive through and eat fast food.

Ancient, God inspired writers instructed their contemporaries to share their history, their heritage, their journey with God with their children. We see these instructions throughout the entire Bible. Are you allowing a restful rhythm in your life to provide quality time teaching and guiding your kids or is your life filled with go there, do this, accomplish that? Truly, the pace of your life matters and you are the one in charge of that pace. Other people/our culture/ life’s circumstances don’t have to determine the pace of our life in the manner that we are allowing it. This crazy fast pace prevents us from taking the time for the meditation needed to truly know God.

Knowing God takes time. In our culture, time is at a premium because we have become convinced that being busy equates with being godly, being good, being healthy, being compassionate, being humble and sacrificial. Yet, nowhere in God’s story do we hear this taught. There is no place in the gospels where Jesus teaches his disciples to hurry up and do more so that they can please God. On the contrary, we hear the message that we are to slow down; to draw apart; to meditate on His statues; to listen, to be still.

I have always believed that the Church’s role is not simply to transmit the truth of scripture to children, but to walk alongside parents, supporting them as they do so. I also feel compelled to shine a light on the path you are on to make you aware of the danger ahead on the road you have chosen.

After a few days at camp with children, age 6 – 12, seeing the medications they are on and hearing them talk about their anxiety disorders, I am convinced more than ever that our hurried pace has interrupted the rhythm God intended for His creation. It has actually been documented that a hurried life has been proven to increase addiction, stress, anxiety, depression.  In nature, God's intended rhythm is not defied. In the animal kingdom there is a strict adherence to it. We see it in the stars of the night sky,  the waves of the ocean, the changing seasons. It is only in humanity that we continue on the path the Eve set for us, believing that we can do life just a little bit better by our design than by God’s. 

Would you consider stepping back and looking through the windows of your family’s future as if you are being directed by the famous Dicken’s character, the Ghost of Christmas Future, and peer into the result of your busy, hectic, lifestyle to see the end game? Can you see the results of the anxiety your pace may be creating? Living in your vehicle running children here and there, sustaining them on fast food and lunchables? 

I have lived that over-achieving lifestyle, believing that “I am what I do.” I know where it leads and I wish I had time to recreate my youth. But, since I don’t, I hopefully pass on some advice to a younger generation while there is still time for you to create a heritage of learning and knowing and resting in the truth that God compels us to Be Still in order to truly know Him and to be yoked to Him in order to find rest. Allowing time to sit at His feet and learn of Him gives us “permission” to slow down and become who God intended from the beginning.