I am reading Mark Buchanan’s book, The Rest of God.  I cannot recommend it highly enough. I wanted to write a few quick thoughts down about hurry.

1)  We live in a world of busyness and hurry.  Both these things kill our souls.

2) Our work, our vocation,  is meant to be fulfilling and meaningful.  The brokenness of the Fall has turned it to toil.  We can redeem the goodness of work- the work that God has called us to do.

3) Hurry is a sign that we think we are in control of our lives, our work, of our ministries.  (I believe that we make decisions, and reap what we sow).

4) Hurry sees time as a posession- a posession that we never have enough of.  Time is a gift.  God has given us an abundance of time.

5) Stress, and busyness, drivenness are signs that indicate we think we are responsible for the results, for getting things done, for fruit.

6) Sabbath, rest, prayer, remind us that hurry kills our souls.  Time is to be shared, given, and received as gift.  We are not in control- God is.  We are not responsible for the results, but to faithfulness.  Fruit is the work of God’s Spirit, not our strivings, running, and drivenness.  And God’s Spirit works most when we are still, quiet, and open.

Qotes from Mark:

“I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry.”

“Our measure of whether or not your rested enough… is to ask yourself this: how much do I care about [practically] the things I care about [theoretically]?”

Okay, there is much more richness here, but jotting down a few thoughts have been good.  I think we need to re-imagine how to practice Sabbath again.

What do you all think about the pracice of Sabbath?  Do you practice it?  Why or why not? Do you hunger for it?  What keeps us from such a core part of God’s way?