HURRY
NOT

Topics: Busyness; Mentoring; Rest; Spiritual Disciplines; Spirituality; Time; Work

References: 2 Corinthians 7:1; Galatians 5:22–23; 1 Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 4:1–11

Not long after moving to the Chicago area to serve as teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church, John Ortberg called a friend to ask for spiritual direction.

“I described the pace of life in my current ministry,” Ortberg writes. “The church where I serve tends to move at a fast clip. I also told him about our rhythms of family life: we are in the van-driving, soccer-league, piano-lesson, school-orientation-night years. I told him about the present condition of my heart, as best I could discern it. What did I need to do, I asked him, to be spiritually healthy?”

After a long pause, the friend said, “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

“OK, I’ve written that one down,” I told him, a little impatiently. “That’s a good one. Now, what else is there?” Ortberg had many things to do, and this was a long-distance call, so he was anxious to cram as many units of spiritual wisdom into the least amount of time possible.

There was another long pause.

“There is nothing else,” the friend said. “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”

Ortberg eventually got it. “I have concluded that my life and the well-being of the people I serve depends on following his prescription, for hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day,” he said. “Hurry destroys souls.”

—John Ortberg, “Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry,” LeadershipJournal.net (July 4, 2002)