Wednesday, April 25

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Ecclesiastes 2:22-23

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

Have you ever heard of “Hurry sickness?” The first person I heard use that phrase was a pastor named John Ortberg, who has since written about it in his book, “The Life You’ve Always Wanted.” He writes, “One of the greatest illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time.”

The first time I heard “Hurry sickness” explained I realized I was already infected with the disease. Ortberg said he sometimes counts the items in the cart of the person who is ahead of him in the express check out line of his local grocery store, just to see if they qualify. I have done that. Ortberg said that when he approaches a traffic light he gets behind the car that he thinks will start the fastest when the light turns green. I have also done that!

The truth is I like to hurry. I hurry even when I don’t have to. In a way, you could say, I am addicted to hurry. And I think most of us are in some way. We live in a culture that celebrates busyness. We live in a culture that prides itself on multi-tasking. We live in a culture where we eat lunch, talk on the phone, listen to the radio, and drive a car – at the same time!

We live in a culture where relaxing is seen as some kind of character flaw. Think about the last 10 times you asked someone how their week has been. How often do they respond with something like this: “It’s been a busy week!” or “Wow, it’s just been kind of crazy – non stop!” How often does someone say, “Well, it’s been kind of slow and relaxing to tell the truth…”? Almost never.

Here’s a question for us all: Why do we hurry? Why do we cram so much into our days that we scarcely can catch our breath before starting up all over again tomorrow? While I can’t say with certainty, I do think the answer has something to do with the truth that being busy makes us feel valuable and important. We like to hurry because it makes us feel like we are in control. We like to hurry because when we aren’t in a hurry we aren’t really sure what to do with ourselves. We simply don’t know how not to hurry!

The ancient writer of Ecclesiastes saw the same problem in his world:

What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

So how do we break our “hurry habit?” How do we cease from our “anxious striving?” What would happen if we voluntarily slowed down? What would happen if we intentionally put ourselves in positions where we had to wait, to be patient, to stand still? What would happen if we deliberately got into the longest line at the check out counter? Or got behind the longest line of cars at the traffic light?

At first, we would probably grow more anxious; more frustrated. But gradually, we might learn that all our hurrying and striving actually produces relatively little benefit. We might learn that God has something to teach us in our moments of waiting. We might discover that life is a little more enjoyable and peaceful when lived at a different speed.

Are you willing to try?

Pastor Brian Coffey