“Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our life. Hurry and Love are incompatible.”
Before all of this Covid-19 thing started to happen, I was reading a book called “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer. It was hitting my core so strongly that I wrote a line from it on my chalkboard in our kitchen. You know, the kind of chalkboard where you can reflect on it AND feel shame all at the same time. Fast forward to this time of isolation and my husband made a comment one morning, “Hey babe, I think that quote on our chalkboard jinxed the world. “ It made us laugh.
In all seriousness though, I want to recognize and be sensitive to the fact that there is death around us and people truly suffering with this virus. However, this message is intended to encourage us who are feeling isolated and adjusting to this change. Isn’t it so true that we are such BUSY people? Rushing from one place to the next. Our children are being taught the same. Perhaps, we weren’t created for that? I have an absurd thought- what if this time of isolation is a GIFT? I know some of us may not see this as a gift. Some of us are just trying to get out of bed every morning. Some of us are trying to not lose our tempers with our children. Some of us fail. Some of us do better the next day. But, isn’t THAT still the gift? The gift of authenticity. The gift of me being here with you. The gift of imperfection. The gift of grace. The gift of forgiveness.
What if? What if we looked at this time as a gift? A gift that will eventually go away because it is the gift of time, uninterrupted. My fear in all this is that we go back to the hectic, stress-filled, fast-paced, HURRIED life we led before. Sure, my family will make some adjustments to keep some of the good we have had during this time, but inevitably it will be back to the hurry. So, what if we treated this time as a gift of time? What would that look like for you today? Go and BE that. REST in that idea of this being a GIFT. And see what happens…one day at a time.