In a hurry? — whole minds

A book review : Learning to experience ‘solace’ that delights the soul by following the way of Jesus.

"I have been surprised by peace."

Over the past 25 years, my testimony is that I have been surprised by peace. Initially I stumbled unexpectedly into it briefly and rarely, but now I sojourn there longer and more regularly. It is with that backdrop that I would like to make this book recommendation. During the 2021 Christmas period I read John Mark Comer’s Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and I thoroughly recommend it. Below is my review of the book with some personal notes.

By way of introduction and context, I am someone who lives with a lifelong anxious disposition. I lived with various levels of constant anxiety and panic. At times I was able to function, at others completely debilitated. I had a period of 8 years when I was a revolving door psychiatric patient. That ended a quarter of a century ago when I admitted to God that I was out of options and I had no plan B and that if he didn’t help me, I was completely stuffed!

Although I had always believed in God and had been a Christian for 14 years at that point, I thought God would not be there for me in times of need and desperation. The facts of my life seemed to support that view. In 1997 thankfully I was in a situation that was so bleak and bereft of the possibility of self-help that I was forced to take a step of trust.

BUT we’ll talk about that another day - today we are looking at this amazing little book!

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Life today seems to be madly busy and frenetic for most people. Work is demanding and smart phones mean that we are rarely out of contact. John Mark offers practical steps to help reduce the ‘multitude of my thoughts within’ so that we can experience more of God’s ‘solace that delights my soul’. He points out that although Jesus tells us he is ‘The way the truth and the life,’ many churches have concentrated on the truth whilst to some extent neglecting the way of Jesus – the rhythms of how he lived life.

Over the past 5 months, applying the wisdom in John Mark’s book has helped me rebalance this in my life, slowing down and introducing a day of rest that is not filled with unpaid work. I try to start and end each day with 20 minutes silence, focusing on God, reflecting, and journaling my thoughts and prayers. I try to take 10 minutes at lunchtime to recalibrate, slow down and find perspective. That has at times significantly reduced the ‘tumultuous din of work.’

I continue to find great benefit from these simple practices and hope that they will help you too.

Notes, thoughts, and reflections from John Mark Comer’s book:

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Rest for the soul

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
**Matthew 11: 28-30**

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Matthew 11: The Message Bible

A problem and a solution

The Problem

Hurry kills relationships, love, joy, gratitude, appreciation, and wisdom. ‘People in a rush don’t have time to enter the goodness of the moment.’ (p.52)

What you give your attention to is the person you become. (p.54)

The Solution

Is not more time but rather to slow down and simplify life around what really matters. Recognising and embracing our limitations is where we find God’s will for our lives. (p.69) So, how do we slow down, simplify, and live deliberately in the chaos of the digital age? (p.74)

All rabbi’s had a ‘yoke’ or set of teachings. Jesus’ yoke is easy and light. Matt 11:28-30. We are his apprentices. He wants us to be with him and become like him so that I do what he would do if he was me. The secret of the easy yoke is to adopt Jesus’ overall lifestyle.

Jesus is the way as well as the truth. Lifestyle involves my rhythms and routines, the way I spend my time and money, where I give my attention. Jesus gives the tired a new way to carry life’s burdens. He offers equipment, not escape! An easy life isn’t an option, but an easy yoke is. Side by side with Jesus doing the heavy lifting. At his pace. Slow, unhurried, present to the moment, full of love, joy, and peace.

I need to take both his life (way) and teachings (truth) as a template. Jesus had a healthy margin (space between our load and our limits) (p.91). He put on display an unhurried life where space for God and love for people were his top priorities.

Love, joy, peace.

Jesus’ way is like a rule of life, providing the trellis for the vine of our lives to flourish. The vine needs a trellis to grow and flourish. We need a structure to help us abide in the vine, so that Jesus’ life of love, joy and peace wells up inside us.

Very few people read the biographies of Jesus (gospels) to emulate his way and rhythms of life - The practices of Jesus. These are spiritual disciplines or habits that he did, and we can emulate with our minds and bodies (p.105). They are the trellis.

These spiritual habits are the means to an end which is life to the full, with Jesus, spending every waking moment in his presence of love, joy and peace. The habits are not an end in themselves (legalism). The goal of a trellis is wine not neat vines!

A discipline is an activity I can do by direct effort to enable me to do something that I currently can’t do by direct effort (such as training for a 5k run). It involves will power. A spiritual discipline also involves discipline (my power) but opens me up to a power beyond me - God’s power.

Some Helpful Practices

Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t command us to follow his practices. He gives an example and an invitation to “follow me” and copy him. Jesus’ routine was to seek God in quiet places.

The Greek word erēmos (er'-ay-mos) is the word translated desert in Jesus’ temptation. It is variously translated in the New Testament as, deserted place, desolate place, solitary place, lonely place, quiet place.

Contrary to popular belief, when Jesus was tempted in this erēmos place after fasting for 40 days, it was a place of strength not weakness for him. Jesus demonstrated a lifetime of seeking the erēmos. Examples are, Mark 1:35: ‘very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.’ Mark 6:31: ‘Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." Luke 5:16: ‘But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.’

When life was busy Jesus went to the erēmos more.
Where is your quiet place to be with God?

Shabbat means to stop and delight. It is how we fill our souls back up with life! God blessed the sabbath and made it holy. We all come to sabbath voluntarily or involuntarily when our health fails, as delight or discipline. God commanded rest. So, it is important - but easy for us to omit. Desire is infinite. We are restless and cannot be satisfied outside of God! Our restlessness is exacerbated by the digital age and twin gods of accumulation and accomplishment. Advertising attempts to monetise our restlessness.

Sabbath as rest and worship. ‘Remember’ - a day set apart for the Lord. So, a whole life orientation towards God. Not a day off to cram in non-work jobs! The Ten commandments: Ex 20:11 - the rhythm of creation. Sabbath is the only one of the commandments with a why - calling us back to the rhythms of grace. The only one that is a spiritual discipline.
Sabbath as resistance against empire. The Ten commandments: Deut 5 - observe it because you used to be slaves. Every empire is built on the back of the oppressed. Slaves (or the gig economy) don’t get a day off! So, observing sabbath is ‘scheduled social justice.’

Sabbath as exchange. Shabbat helps us find a way of working from a place of rest with nothing to prove. Bearing fruit from abiding not ambition. Free from the need to do more, get more, be more. We exchange a spirit of restlessness for the holy spirit of restful calm, knowing that our ordinary lives are enough.

“True restfulness is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace, and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.” Ronald Rolheiser.

“We are governed, our minds moulded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by people we have never heard of who pull the wires which control the public mind.” Edward Bernays – Propaganda.

The lie is that more money and stuff make you happier. Research shows that the happiness quotient maxes at $75k. Materialism speeds up the pace of life. ‘The drive to possess is the engine of hurry.’ So, we spend time to get money. However, more stuff usually means we have less time and less margin but with more stress.

Jesus’ moral statements are statements of how the world works. They are not usually commands, rather acute observations about what is true and the best way to live. For example, Luke 12:15: "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions." Mat 6:24: "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

This is a first world problem. A practice of Jesus to help is minimalism. Simplicity is a decluttering of life so that our focus is on what is important. Living with less is, “an inward reality seen in an outward lifestyle, leveraging time, money, talents and possessions towards what matters most.” Foster / Scandrette.

What would Jesus do if he were me? John Mark suggests some things for us to think about when considering a purchase: What’s the true cost? (Including the cost of increasing or decreasing hurry). Am I oppressing the poor or harming the earth? Never impulse buy! Buy fewer but better things. Share and give things away. Budget. Enjoy things without owning them. Cultivate a deep appreciation of creation. Cultivate a deep appreciation for simple pleasures. Lead a cheerful revolt against materialism!

John Mark suggests cultivating patience by deliberately choosing to put ourselves in situations where we must wait!

His suggestions for non-legalistic self-imposed guardrails are:

Phone: do not let your phone set your emotional equilibrium or your news feed set your view of the world. (Journalism is still a slave to capitalism! Bad news sells. Our news is curated by the views of the owners and by what sells.)
Drive at the speed limit, choose the slow lane. Show up early, choose the longest queue!
Set a time for emails and stick to it.
Boundary the use of social media. Have boundaries around TV use as ‘everything we let into our minds influences our souls’ and ‘our attention is the doorway to our hearts.’
Single tasking - helps us be fully present to the moment whereas ‘multitasking leads to a divided self, with full attention given to nothing.’
Walk slower - force yourself to take a more relaxed pace. Take a regular day alone for silence and solitude.
Journaling – this grounds and tethers our souls, helping us slow to observe our life from the outside.
Mindfulness and meditation - help us become people of substance, well thought through with deep convictions.
If possible, take longer and more frequent vacations. Research shows relaxation maxes at the 8th day.
Cook your own food and eat in.

Epilogue

‘At this point in my life, I’m just trying not to miss the goodness of each day and bring my best self to it’
John Ortberg.

Practice the presence of Jesus. Slow down, breathe, return to the moment.
Simplify life around the practices of Jesus.
Abide - live from a deep place of love, joy, and peace.

‘The present is the point at which time touches eternity’ C S Lewis - so learn to live in the now and here.

Contributor: Gary Underhill