A thought by John Mark Comer from his
book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (p. 23). The Crown Publishing
Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy
the book.)
Wow, pretty strong thought isn’t it?
John says, “All my worst moments as a
father, a husband, and a pastor, even as a human being, are when I’m in a
hurry—late for an appointment, behind on my unrealistic to-do list, trying to
cram too much into my day. I ooze anger, tension, a critical nagging—the
antitheses of love. If you don’t believe me, next time you’re trying to get
your type B wife and three young, easily distracted children out of the house
and you’re running late (a subject on which I have a wealth of experience),
just pay attention to how you relate to them. Does it look and feel like love?
Or is it far more in the vein of agitation, anger, a biting comment, a rough
glare? Hurry and love are oil and water: they simply do not mix.”
He goes on, “Hence, in the apostle
Paul’s definition of love, the first descriptor is ‘patient.’ (1 Corinthians
13:4)
“There’s a reason people talk about ‘walking’
with God, not ‘running’ with God. It’s because God is love.
“In his book Three Mile an Hour God, the late Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama put
this language around it:
“God
walks ‘slowly because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much
faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It
is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are
accustomed. It is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all other speeds since it is the
speed of love.”
John continues, “In our culture slow
is a pejorative. When somebody has a low IQ, we dub him or her slow. When the
service at a restaurant is lousy, we call it slow. When a movie is boring,
again, we complain that it’s slow. Case in point, Merriam-Webster: ‘mentally
dull: stupid: naturally inert or sluggish: lacking in readiness, promptness, or
willingness.’
“The message is clear: slow is bad;
fast is good.”
John then says, “But in the
upside-down kingdom, our value system is turned on its head: hurry is of the
devil; slow is of Jesus because Jesus is what love looks like in flesh and
blood.”
That is a good place to start, isn’t it?
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