Reminder: Your phone doesn’t actually work for you. You pay for it, yes. But it works for a multibillion-dollar corporation in California, not for you. You’re not the customer; you’re the product. It’s your attention that’s for sale, along with your peace of mind.21” Here’s my point: the solution to an overbusy life is not more time. It’s to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters. I was reared by loving Christian parents but I was taught that I needed to be productive. I believed if I just worked hard to follow Jesus my life would be good. I’m now in my 70’s and I’ve made lots of mistakes in my efforts to be a Christian. But I’m just now coming to the realization that working hard, even for Christ, isn’t the answer.

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World That was the question nagging pastor and author John Mark Comer. Outwardly, he appeared successful. But inwardly, things weren't pretty. So he turned to a trusted mentor for guidance and heard these words:right now everything is being intentionally designed for distraction and addiction. Because that’s where the money is. I don’t know your story. The odds are, you aren’t a former megachurch pastor who burned out and had a mid-life crisis at thirty-three. It’s more likely you’re a college student at USD or a twentysomething urbanite in Chicago or a full-time mom in Melbourne or a middle-aged insurance broker in Minnesota. Getting started in life or just trying to keep going. The word rule comes from the Latin word regula, which literally means ‘a straight piece of wood,’ (think: ruler), but it was also used for a trellis. 10 Think of Jesus’ teaching on abiding in the vine from John 15, one of his most important teachings on emotional health and spiritual life ….What’s underneath every thriving vine? A trellis. A structure to hold up the vine so it can grow and bear fruit.

If you’re new to the Sabbath, a question to give shape to your practice is this: What could I do for twenty-four hours that would fill my soul with a deep, throbbing joy? That would make me spontaneously combust with wonder, awe, gratitude, and praise? Ultimately, nothing in this life, apart from God, can satisfy our desires. Tragically, we continue to chase after our desires ad infinitum. The result? A chronic state of restlessness or, worse, angst, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, depression—all of which lead to a life of hurry, a life of busyness, overload, shopping, materialism, careerism, a life of more…which in turn makes us even more restless. And the cycle spirals out of control.” A century ago the less you worked, the more status you had. Now it’s flipped: the more you sit around and relax, the less status you have. We must consciously own and direct our attention in a culture doing everything it can to keep us from just that: Because of technology, we no longer have the ability, the will, or appreciate the value of, being in silence.I do wish he had helped me a little in the middle. I had a quam bc he talks about external noise and internal noise (ch. on silence and solitude). My issue is that he said the inner noise is quite difficult to silence but we must silence the inner noise and then he just moves on. Nothing about how to do that. I am finding that his practice later on in the slowing chapter and aiding in this process. But i wish he had told me that in the earlier chapters. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.

Comer implores us to make space for God--literally and figuratively--by slowing down, spending time with God, and creating space on our shelves and in our brains by rejecting the messaging, clutter, and harried pace that comes with the endless accumulation of “more.” Jesus’s invitation is to take up his yoke—to travel through life at his side, learning from him how to shoulder the weight of life with ease. From Matthew 11: 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. You may remember when “WWJD” bracelets were a thing. The letters on the bracelet were a reminder to ask “What Would Jesus Do?” That question is helpful to a point, but Jesus lived in a different place and time. A better question, says Comer, is “How would Jesus live if he were me?” We need to extrapolate, of course, because many aspects of our situation did not exist in the first century in the Middle East. But as we read the stories in the gospels and see how Jesus lived his life, we are given some good clues. Jesus focused on what really mattered. He lived his life present in the moment and connected to his Father. Though he was God, he was also a man who lived within the limitations of his human body and within the limitations of time. You might be feeling overwhelmed at the magnitude of the tasks still needing attention. “My King and Savior is here. There is nothing better than to enjoy and adore him.”

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There are those rare books that every single waking person needs to immediately go read. This is that book. We’ve found no better conversation or a more much-needed antidote to our culture’s problem of busyness and hurry than John Mark’s words in this book. Beyond helpful and encouraging and insightful to us!” —Alyssa and Jefferson Bethke,New York Timesbest-selling authors of Jesus > Religionand Love That Lasts What a trellis is to a vine, a rule of life is to abiding. It’s a structure—in this case a schedule and a set of practices—to set up abiding as the central pursuit of your life. It’s a way to organize all of your life around the practice of the presence of God, to work and rest and play and eat and drink and hang out with your friends and run errands and catch up on the news, all out of a place of deep, loving enjoyment of the Father’s company. Hurry is the greatest enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate Hurry from your life. Dallas WIllard Let’s take a closer look…