Hurry Affects How Fully We Live

Do you ever feel like a lot of things in life are too slow? You put something in the microwave for 20 seconds, and 5 seconds in, you’re already itching for it to be done. When did this happen? When did we become people who can’t just… slow down?

We’ve become so accustomed to hurry that we don’t even recognize it as hurry anymore. We just call it LIFE. But is there a difference between having a busy life and living a hurried life? Busy means we have something to do but being hurried means something different.

Hurry isn’t always about what’s happening around us, it’s about what’s happening inside us. It’s not just that we’re moving too fast, it’s that we’re moving so fast we can miss the very life we’re working so hard to build.

Underneath our hurry is something much deeper – self-sufficiency. Self-sufficiency is not saying, “I don’t need God.” It’s a quiet belief that if something is going to get done, it’s up to me. And slowly, without even intending to, we begin living as though everything depends on us.

But what if some of what we’re carrying was never ours to carry in the first place?

Stillness & The Start
We don’t just struggle to find moments of quiet, we struggle to know what to do with them when we have them. And that’s a normal feeling. If our hurry comes from believing that everything depends on us, then slowing down can feel almost threatening because for a moment, we’re not managing, fixing, or getting ahead of anything.

And the question still becomes: Can I trust God enough to be still?

Leadership
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

Before David says anything about where he’s going, he establishes who’s leading. The LORD is my Shepherd, and if the LORD is my Shepherd, then I am not. We are the sheep. A shepherd has a responsibility to lead, and a sheep’s responsibility is to follow.

A sheep can’t do a shepherd’s job. We’re trying to follow God while also trying to control where He’s taking us. So, how much of our hurry comes from that tension?

Following the Shepherd doesn’t mean I stop being responsible, it means I stop pretending I’m responsible for everything.

Confidence
In Psalm 23, David is saying because the LORD is my Shepherd, I trust Him to provide what I need. His confidence isn’t in where he’s going, it’s in WHO is leading him.

It’s really important to know who’s leading you when you don’t know where you’re going.

We can’t control a future we can’t see. And that’s what makes David’s declaration so remarkable. He’s not confident because he knows what the future holds, he’s confident because he knows who holds the future.

Now, that doesn’t mean tomorrow will be easy. David talks about walking through the darkest valley later in Psalm 23.

• There will be difficulties.
• There will be uncertainty.
• There will be moments when we don’t understand what God is doing.

Just because you don’t know what’s coming doesn’t mean God doesn’t know what you need. So, how do we know when we can trust the One who’s leading us?

John 10
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

God is good because He lays down His life for the sheep.

We can trust Him. So, if we can trust Him with our eternity, maybe we can begin trusting Him with our Tuesday afternoon.

Pay attention to the moments when you find yourself rushing. When you recognize those, remember who your Shepherd is.

We aren’t going to wake up tomorrow with less to do, but we can wake up tomorrow without feeling like the entire weight of the world was resting on our shoulders. Stop living as though everything depends on us and start trusting the Shepherd.