Thursday, June 21, 2007
11:44 AM
Consider some of the symptoms of hurry sickness in our life.
Constantly speeding up daily activities. You are haunted by the fear that there are just not enough hours in the day to do what needs to be done so you try to do things faster and become impatient when you have to wait.
Multi-tasking. You do or think about more than one thing at a time, packing as much into your day a possible.
Clutter. You are weighed down by things you failed to refused to do. You trade wisdom for information and exchange depth for breadth.
Sunset fatigue. By day's end, you are too tired, drained, or preoccupied to receive love from the Father ot give it to people around you.
The discipline of slowimg and the practice of solitude are antidotes to hurry sickness. To eliminate hurry from our lives doesn't mean we won't be busy. jesus was often busy but he was never hurried. His priorities were always ordered according to His life-giving connection with His Father. by practicing the disciplines of slowing down, we too can learn to become unhurried people. This involves cultivating patience by choosing to wait, trusting God to enable us to accomplish all we need to get done. When we practice solitude, we remove ourselves from the forces of daily life that otherwise mold us. We withdraw from noise, people, activities, connections with God. Begin each day by praying over the day's schedule-tasks to perform, people we will be with-and placing it in God's hands.
Lord, may I find rest in You alone. My hope comes from You. May I put my trust in You each day to accomplish all that i need to do. Amen
Jeffrey Tan was here.
11:23 AM
Hurry sickness is more than a disordered schedule;it reflects a disordered heart. Hurry disrupts our life-giving connection with God, so if we want to grow spiritually we must train ourselves to eliminate hurry. We eliminate hurry by setting the priorities of our heart in order. The Bible Frequently cautions us against being consumed or disordered by priorities of this world- accumulation of wealth, concern about food and shelter, desire for recognition or power- all of which drive su to be hurried person. We accumulate things and cling on to our possessions because we are anxious about tomorrow. Our need for security has led us into an insane attachment to things. Most people buy more not because they need but because they want. Masses of things that are not needed complicate life. they must be sorted and stored and dusted and re-sorted and re-sorted. Most of us could get rid of half our possessions without any serious sacrifice.
What God wants of us is to cultivate an attitude of contentment with what you have now. What Paul is saying to us isn't that we should ignore the economics of our decisions. je is warning us that if we find an eagerness for money and possessions pushing out consideration of other more important values. We're in serious personal and spiritual danger.
Lord God, I give You praise and thank You for the good things You've placed in my life. Help me to be content with all that You've given me. Amen
Jeffrey Tan was here.
