You know what they say.
You’ve probably heard them yourself, and you know what they say.
Look at Jesus, they say. He was never in haste, and never late for an appointment. Let Him be your model. His people should be calm and unhurried.
They are full of it, I say.
Well, alright. In light of the present age, with its busyness-as-personal-worth measuring stick, they may be offering a valid pushback. Although Jesus did a lot of things His people don’t achieve… I haven’t had anyone haggling me because I can’t walk across a lake in a storm, or heal paralysis by touch.
If Jesus was never in a hurry (which I am not convinced of, to be really honest with you), it’s because he was God, and God does not miss His own appointments. But Scripture is full of stories in which holy people rushed around to join Him at His chosen times and places.
Look. You have…
A 99-year-old Abraham hustling to tell Sarah of angelic visitors, then running to fetch a tender calf for their dinner
Angels rushing Lot out of the city
Rebekah hurrying to water Eliezer’s camels
The Israelites scarfing down the first Passover meal, per God’s commandment
Moses hurrying to worship
Holy armies hastening to war
David running toward his giant
Abigail hurrying to fend off the attack of armed and dangerous men
The kings of Babylon jumping to witness the work of God
Mary hurrying to see Elisabeth
The shepherds dashing to the manger to worship the Baby
Zacchaeus launching out of his tree
and Paul hurrying to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem.
There are even a few Old Testament references to God hastening His plans to fruition at the right time.
If you want to tell me that the lives of Jesus’ followers should not be characterized by agitation and constant rush, you have a point worth making. If you want to say we’re rushing for the wrong things, or that proper planning can save last minute scrambling, I’m on board. If you want to say that listening to the Holy Spirit can quiet our hearts and supernaturally prepare us for things to come, I couldn’t agree more.
But we are human. We usually cannot see the future, we make mistakes, and we struggle to stay ahead of our tasks. “Christians should always be unhurried” is awfully close to “Christians should always be comfortable” which is awfully close to straight-up heresy.
Sometimes we are capable of far more than we think, if we’re willing to put up with a little rush and chaos. Sometimes the unexpected arrives on our doorstep, and we hustle to make it work.
We hurry to join God in the places He wants us.
It’s time we stopped feeling guilty for it.
I like this. Thank you.
Who even thinks about doing a Bible study on hurry?
Wow.
I liked this and I think you’re amazing. . . she said as she saw that it was 11:10 and rushed off to bed.
I like this post. I agree! Now I just need to learn to use kind words while I hurry and rush around. 🙂
For me there are different ways of hurrying. Some holy. Some very unholy. I feel the Lord’s favor on me when I hurry and extend myself because an unexpected opportunity arose and I said ‘yes’. I feel guilt when I must hurry because of unwise choices I have made. This guilt often plays itself out in anger at the people around me who are slowing me down in irritating ways.
Your words have been thought provoking for me this morning. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!! I love this these thoughts! It seems so often that the people who say that we must “never hurry or else you are not a good Christian”, are the ones who are also unhelpful about practical ways of doing so. This article is a great way to tell if it is a worthwhile thing to hustle over or not. I find that sometimes my greatest times of stress are the ones where I planned, re-planned, schemed some more, and then things did not go click, click. I am NOT against planning or being proactive about work but sometimes God’s work gets done very smoothly though we may be flying by the seat of our bloomers!! Thank you for spending some of your time to share this.
Thank you.
This was a good thing to challenge pre-conceived notions and some helpful ideas. Also helpful to not criticize another person who responds to situations in a different way than we tend to. Arie
What amazes me most is your ability to think outside the box with your workload right now. I really liked your thoughts on this. I will keep thinking about it all week. I’m a chronic hurry-er and it’s nice to know there are a few out there who won’t be offended.
This isn’t a spiritual comment or anything, but when I’m rushing around getting all my kids ready to go somewhere, I often think of Dr Seuss’s poem:
“Two legs, four legs, six legs, eight.
We’ve all got to hurry, or we’ll all be late.
Hurry, hurry, hurry, or we’ll all be late,
with our two legs, four legs, six legs, eight.”
There sure are a lot of little legs to get out the door on Sunday mornings! 🙂