Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mold, but let God remold your minds from within and change the way you think. Romans 12.2 (Phillips)
Do your utmost to enter through the narrow gate. The wide gate is easy that leads to disaster and most people are going that way. The narrow gate and the more difficult road leads out into life and only a few are finding it. Matthew 7:13-14 (Phillips)
Is it possible to not always be in a hurry, to feel scattered and rushed, and yet get everything done?
It seems a very contradictory idea to the path that has been and is being cut by everyone around us. Have you ever just stopped, sat down on a bench and just watched people? Do you like what you see? Do they look rested, peaceful, joyful? Or do they look anxious, fragmented, distracted, and in a hurry?
Does that seem like an attractive way of living life? What you are doing and how you are doing it…the way you are living…this, my friend, is your life. What you are doing this day, this hour, this minute. What you are doing is your life.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do this hour, and that one, is what we are doing.” (Annie Dillard)
To ask again: Is it possible to live a deep, unhurried, attentive life and yet still get everything done?
I watch people. I’ve watched myself. I’ve caught myself being swept up into the life that is shoving and pulling us through the wide gate that leads to everything that is not life. We try to cram as much into every minute as we can.And the stuff we are doing, we try to do it as fast as we can, so we can get on to the next thing.
Our days are often stacked with back to back “stuff to do”— “stuff that needs to get done.” Some of it we have to own because we create it for ourselves. Other times, we are pressured by the expectations and demands that other people have placed on us. I mean, we can’t let them down, can we?
And we are spit out of this machine and left exhausted…more often mentally and emotionally than physically.
Could it be possible that we have subtly and maybe not even intentionally been squeezed and reshaped into the mold of this world?
Are we “playing the wrong game?” Have we been swindled and tricked into believing that it all needs to get done? I mean, does it? What would happen if that thing didn’t get done? Most things…probably nothing. The sun would come up the next day just as it did this morning. You are still the same child of God. God still thinks the same way he thought about you as he did yesterday: His beloved.
I want to convince you that somehow, if you’ll go with me and trust me, that there is another way to live. A different way. It’s life found when we enter through the narrow gate.
I want to convince you that…
• Slower is better than hurried.
• Peace is better than anxiety.
• Trust is better than worry.
• Rhythm is better than fragmented.
• Deeper is better than shallow.
• Available is better than unavailable.
• Seeing is better than not seeing.
• Hearing is better than not hearing.
• Noticing is better than missing it.
• A few close friends are better than 1000 social media friends.
• Doing a few things well is better than doing many things adequately.
As Ron Swanson wisely put it, “Whole-ass one thing rather than half-ass two things.”
A friend of mine would call it “working rested.” I’d say it’s also living to more of a rhythm and a song rather than a fragmented distraction. It’s being led more than it is being driven.
I know you would agree you would love to slow down a little bit, take a few things off your plate, and do fewer things, but do those fewer things well.
The answer is not in getting more organized or a new app to help you with your lists and appointments. The answer is being convinced you don’t want to live the way you or we are living and make a declaration that you want to do it differently. This is what it means to repent. It means to first, STOP. Secondly, REALIZE that this way is not what you want, then to TURN AROUND and WALK in the opposite / 180 degree direction.
But don’t miss my main hope for you: It is to live a deep, intimate life with Jesus and with others. To live life well.To enjoy God and enjoy the life in which he has given you as a gift.
To create a space…a rhythm…a holy focus that allows you to use and live out of those unique gifts that God has instilled inside of you that are to be given away to a world that needs them.
Here are some practical thoughts that I either desire or am trying to figure out how to put into practice in my life:
Do less. This is pretty simple. Look at everything you do or try to do. Is it necessary? Is it your decision to be doing it or did you feel pressured when you committed to doing it? Does it align with who you want to be, what you want to be about, and are you using your God-given unique gifts in what you are doing?
Have fewer meetings. Most meetings are unnecessary. Could it be a simple phone call? (Yes, phone call…not a text).
Practice disconnecting. Not going to try to wage war on this thing we hold in our hand and look at 5-7 hours a day. But, seriously, pick a few times during the day when you turn it off, tuck it in a drawer and go wander…go play…go do nothing. Go be with someone you love and since you don’t have “it” with you, you can give them your full, undivided attention. When was the last time you were talking or sitting with someone and you had their full, undivided attention? They were focused on you, what you were saying…being fully present to you?
Give yourself time to get there. Margin. Just don’t stack or plan things right up against each other. Throw an hour in between anything you are planning. Just give yourself some time to get there, get ready for what is next.
Insert pauses into your day where you literally do nothing.Henri Nouwen wrote that the most terrifying, uncomfortable place for a person to be is in a chair with nothing to do, nothing to read, nothing to watch, no one to talk to…just being there with nothing but ourselves. We will usually do anything to avoid that scenario.
Become convinced that if it doesn’t get done, that’s OK. It really is OK. There is always tomorrow to get it done. I know for some of you, super-efficient, get shit done people this is a challenging and frustrating possibility. It’s not laziness or procrastination…it’s just unrushed, unhurried, non-frantic. If you take some time to pray and think through what God wants you to be about, attempt to accomplish…then I’m convinced what needs to be done that day will get done.
Eliminate the unnecessary or non meaningful. I know people who are involved in 3 or 4 different Bible study small groups, who meet with different people every week. Just pick one group, be involved and give yourself away through that one ministry. Go to that one church. Enjoy that one hobby. You get the point.
Practice being attentive; listening, watching. Take time each day and each week for a little bit of a longer time to reflect. Where have you seen Jesus at work? Who have you seen Jesus in? Is there anything he is putting on your heart? Is he nudging you to change something or change something in yourself? Can you get still and quiet enough to hear his whisper? Reflect on your life, what all is going on…and not just the “christian, Jesus” stuff, but the nonsense, the childish fun, the tears, the laughter, the friends, the experiences. Write it down. What are you thankful and grateful for?
Eliminate good commitments / Keep the best. The enemy of the best…that one thing…those few things are a lot of really good, sometimes even “Christian” things. A bunch of really good things are usually what keep us from really doing that one or those few things well. Often the enemy is not going to tempt you with selling crack, or robbing that gas station, or becoming a hooker. It’s going to be the inability to say “no” to being involved in that second or third bible study, or saying “yes” to that invitation to help with this or that, or join this or that…
Take more naps.
I hope some of any of this might be encouraging to you…pushing you to a deeper life with Jesus and others…and yourself.
ericfaisonstory 
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