While I was on vacation in a little cabin in the woods in Arkansas last week, I picked up a DVD series called "Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People" by John and Nancy Ortberg. Each day I would watch one or two segments. In one of the segments John said, "you must ruthlessly erase 'hurry' from your life." We usually talk about how busy we are and how we need to remove 'busy' from our lives, but Jesus was often busy. He was busy healing people, teaching, traveling, out by himself talking to the Father, etc... Basically he was loving and serving others. You can't hurry love and you can't hurry when you are really serving someone. He didn't hurry or let people hurry him. When Lazarus died, the disciples were all concerned because Jesus wanted to stay where they were and finish what they were doing instead of going to Lazarus's side. Jesus waited a few DAYS before starting the journey to see Lazarus and his family. He wasn't in a hurry... He was doing what needed to be done and then going to the next thing.
This statement hit me like a ton of bricks. Probably the biggest reason I needed that vacation was that I had been hurrying through life to get it all done, now. I was getting/allowing myself to be pulled in too many directions at once and not getting very much done well. The other lesson from both the "Spiritual Disciplines" DVD and the story about Jesus and Lazarus is that I need to set boundaries. If you are anything like me, that means boundaries on myself and boundaries on others. I am currently reading a book called "Boundaries" by Cloud & Townsend. I am only a few chapters in, but so far it is a great book that I highly recommend.
I am not "fixed" yet :-), but I'm trying to be mindful of the words "hurry" and "boundaries." Just thought I would share! Hope you have a great "non-hurried" week!
