Overcoming Hurry Sickness

I’ll start this article with a confession.  My name is Jackie Dawson and I suffer from an addiction best described as ‘hurry sickness.’  I’ve rarely been accused of lacking energy or passion.  Often, I pride myself in multi-tasking, picking the shortest route, or carrying enough in one trip to keep from making two.  I also habitually practice line-watching.  Line watching describes my actions in check out lines. I count how many people are in each line, factor in how many items are in each person’s possession, and for good measure watch how slow the people are moving, then pick what seems to be the shortest line.  If my calculations do not seem to be holding true, I change lines, sometimes more than once.

I’m not the only one who suffers from ‘hurry sickness.’  A vast number of Americans suffer from it.   I’ve noticed that hurry is most ministers’ drug of choice.  It’s as if we’ve landed in the world of the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland:  “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.  If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”  So off we hurry, to help someone, prepare another message, or write an article.   I must confess that while I was searching for a sermon series title that dealt with this subject, I caught myself thinking, ‘I must quickly find a title, so I can work on something else.’ 

We also hurry for more emotional reasons.  Hurrying can momentarily relieve our feelings of lagging behind.  I must admit, I have taken the longest and slowest route on purpose when faced with sitting a few minutes in traffic.  At least through moving, I feel as though I’m making progress.  

Hurrying can make us feel important, or be used to prove that, “we’re not lazy!” Sadly we’re so accustomed to hurrying; many times we don’t even know why we’re rushing around.  We simply hurry because we’re in a hurry. 

Hurry sickness has many negative side effects such as a cluttered life, impatience with all waiting (even if there is nothing pressing), superficiality, and inconsiderate actions toward others.  It robs us from investing the time it takes to develop healthy relationships.  It can be a major factor in deteriorating health because it produces constant stress, and keeps us too busy to eat a healthy diet, get proper rest, or exercise. 

Hurrying is deceitful. It produces increased activity and because we feel some result is better than no result, we justify it by saying, “Next time, I’ll do better.”  Hurrying may occasionally produce good results.  However, when it becomes a habit, it actually reduces productivity and creativity.  Even more seriously, hurry sickness can erode our spiritual life.  As John Ortberg wrote, “For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith.  It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.  We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.” 

At the root of hurrying lies an underlying and often unidentified fear: “If I don’t do this, it won’t get done.”  Therefore, hurrying can prevent us from walking in God’s grace.  In our survival mentality, instead of slowing down long enough to discover God’s plan and timing, we do it our way.  In Exodus 14, we find the importance God places on slowing down.  The children of Israel were in a tight spot.  On one side the Egyptians were coming, and on the other was the Red Sea.  Then in direct opposition to their natural senses and desire to do something now, Moses was inspired to give the following instructions:  … "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will accomplish for you today.  For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.14 The LORD will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace."   Exodus 14:13-14 NKJV   

Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is ‘nothing’, but that is exactly what God wanted the children of Israel to do first.  We had rather God tell us anything but stand still and watch.  We want deliverance, but we want it on our terms.  Yet, God told them to stand still, I will fight for you.  I can hear myself protesting, “But God don’t you need me too….”  It was God’s plan all along to deliver them in a miraculous way.  All they had to do was resist their fear, stand still and let God lead the way.   

I wonder how different things would be, if we re-ordered our lives and made a practice of first standing still to enjoy God’s presence and discover His plan for our situation.  Not jut in a moment of crisis, but as normal part of our every day lives.  Have we developed our heart to the place to where we can simply spend time with Him, and trust Him to see us through?  I’ve far from mastered this activity, but by the grace of God, I’m getting better and overcoming the addiction of hurry sickness.  By the way, for those of you who think standing still represents laziness or a lot of down time, look at Ex 14:15  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!  NLT 

Slowing down positions us to move forward effectively.  For those of us who energetically enjoy life and productivity, that’s great news. 

Be still, and know that I am God:   Ps 46:10 KJV