What propels your “hurried” mindset? Do you think you feel hurried in moments of overwhelm, fear of not having enough time or capacity to complete all that it feels is needed of you? Sometimes I find myself feeling like I don’t have the time to slow down and prioritize what matters most because that is time wasted that could be spent doing the things that need to be done. Is this relatable at all? I’ve experienced this spiral in my life and the lives of those I love for too long. I’ve also been blessed with people in my life who don’t live this way. I say they’re blessed with a more “at ease” personality type than I was born with (ha), but the truth is, it’s a choice. It may come more naturally for some of us but it’s possible for all of us. When we slow down the fire that fuels our pace from a sense of urgency to a sense of stillness, we actually get so much more done and live our lives so much more intentionally in the process.
A big part of living life less hurried is practicing our trust in God through our daily “grind.” When we wake up in the morning, do we trust that a moment spent in prayer or reading our Bible is a moment (even if for just 5 minutes) better spent than racing to check email notifications or get breakfast started for the family? Trusting God can get all things done through us also looks like not adding one more task when it would be more honoring of our time (and that flutter of rush we feel in our hearts) to go ahead and load up the car to get to our next place.
God created time and He created you and me with limitations. He knows the demands of the day. I think we will get to heaven and find that Jesus, as our advocate, has been sharing His lived experience on earth with God, affirming how easy it is for us to be distracted and feel hurried by this busyness we live in. There is freedom when we learn to recognize this pace of our hearts quickly, and then respond in trust by reevaluating our next step in the list of daily things that must be done.
Being adaptable, showing ourselves grace, and trusting that God is going to accomplish what He needs to be done through us changes the way our hearts feel throughout the day. We go from frantic and stressed to at peace and free, despite our to-do list not changing.
I’m praying for this space of freedom over each of our days today. I pray God would see our desire to move at a pace of trust today, believing through our actions that He can and will accomplish what needs to be done today and the rest can wait, resulting in freedom within our spirits as we move throughout the day.
"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." 1 Timothy 6:6–7 (NIV)
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