STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. What would your reaction have been to that one “dagger” John Ortberg’s mentor hurled his way?
2. Which is the most important goal for most of us: getting MORE done each day, getting the things I do done better, doing what God wants done, or becoming more like Christ? What would our Palm pilot reveal is the answer? Or someone who knows us?
3. List your top 10 most enjoyable activities. Place a $ by any which require more than $20. What does this tell you about your values and priorities? What implications does it have for your pace and your “race”?
4. List some ways you could practice the SD of “slowing.” List some ways you could practice “stopping.”
TAKE THIS “HURRY SICKNESS” QUIZ True or False
1. I often find myself taking orders more from my calendar than God ___
2. I usually go to the drive-thru window at the burger joint and eat it in the car (as God intended) ___
3. I frequently change lanes (driving) or lines (the store) to move a few spaces ahead ___
4. “Multi-task” is my middle name ___
5. I talk faster, nod faster, and look at my watch to speed up conversations ___
6. I have more than two books in my “to read” stack ___
7. I buy time-saving gadgets, but don’t take the time to read the instructions or figure out how to use them ___
8. I frequently wish I would have said “No” to commitments ___
9. I often forget important promises/dates ___
10. I rush or am anxious even when there’s no real reason ___
11. I seldom feel gratitude, wonder, or peace ___
12. I seldom take a day for solitude and renewal ___
Now add all your “Trues”
Score 9-12 You need some SERIOUS shalom (& intervention)
5-8 There is room to improve…if you can take time
1-4 You’re either GOOOOD or need checked for a pulse
I. John Ortberg tells of a phone conversation he had with his spiritual mentor that went something like this: “My life is moving way too fast and it is out of balance in key places. What must I do.” The coach’s answer: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
A. Long pause. Thinking there was surely more, Ortberg elaborated on the condition of his life. He readied his pen to write notes & other advice: “There is nothing else.” One dagger…hurled right into the heart of the matter.
B. What would your reaction to that one dagger have been? Denial? Dismissal? Justification? Or change? We know we move too fast, but we’re not ready to go as far as Ortberg’s mentor, or famed psychologist, Carl Jung, who said: “Hurry is not OF the devil; it IS the devil.”
C. Which is the most important goal for you: getting MORE done each day, getting the things I do done better, getting what Jesus wants me to do done, or becoming more like Christ? What would our Palm pilot reveal is the answer? Or someone who knows us?
D. Usain Bolt just broke the 200 meter record again running an incredible 19.19. Where will it end? Rumor has it that Puma, his sponsor offered him $1M each time he breaks a world record, and Bolt is playing this for all it’s worth. He knows he can keep going faster and faster, breaking the record again and again, so doesn’t really give his all, so he can keep collecting the $1M over and over.
I don’t believe he’s doing that. But I believe we do that. I think we think that we can just keep going faster and faster, breaking our own records for getting things done and accomplishing more and packing more into our schedules and our kid’s. It’s almost like we believe someone is offering US $1M for each time we go faster; each thing we can add or do. Where will it end?
E. We look in the mirror and see the Red Queen from Alice In Wonderland. Her lips are moving in sync with ours: “Now here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”
II. Don’t look at her; look at Jesus who said: “Come apart with me and get some rest” (Mk 6:31b). However, preceding this verse sounds like the way we gear up for fall after those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer (v 30-31a…”Well done, good & faithful servant. You’re so busy you can’t even eat!”???). Dya think He understood this problem?
A. Remember the men to whom He gave this command (not suggestion) had just come off a marathon of ministry.
1. Most of us aren’t really too busy to eat. Because in His sovereign love, in the sixth day of creation, God commanded: “let there be fast food [neither fast nor food] AND drive thru windows.” Then God saith “Sweet” (“Very Good!”)! Now my children can eat in their cars as I have ordained from the foundation of the earth…or five days ago.
2. We’re not too busy to eat because many of us, using our God-given creativity, have invented the stand up lunch. Joyce and I are ashamed to admit we actually have a (borrowed) name for the practice: “feeding at the trough.” You do know which farm animals eat at troughs, don’t you? (bird flu/swine flu joke).
B. Jesus often had much to do, but He never seems hurried. He had his face set toward Jerusalem, the life purpose God had given Him. But he was never so goal-oriented that He couldn’t stop to love the people God brought into His path, esp the “little people” (children, hurting, and downcast (Lk 13:22, 32; 17:11; 18:31, 40; 19:5, 28).
1. He never moved so fast that He lost His life-giving connection to His heavenly Father, like we’re to have w/ Him (Jn 15). He was always stopping and slowing to get away from the busyness so He could re-connect with His peace & power source; His heavenly Father (Mk 6:45-46).
2. Can you say the same?
3. An experiment done with those furry friendly little lab mice a few years ago found it takes a high dose of amphetamines (speed) to kill a mouse living in quietness, slowness and solitude. But get those mice running & revving each other up, then a dose TWENTY times smaller is lethal. If a mouse is given NO amphetamines at all, but is put into a cage with other mice juiced up on the drug, it will be become so frenzied it will be dead in 10 min. Being around others moving fast makes them go off like popcorn.*
4. “Speed kills” is a warning for those behind a wheel, for those popping pills, and for those moving too fast.
(*Source: Ortberg, p. 90-91, “Mice On Amphetamines”: also cited in Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988, p. 160.).
5. That’s why Jesus said: “Slow down and come apart from the crowds so you don’t get as juiced & jumpy as mice on meth,” a loose translation.
III. One of the greatest promises and rewards in the Bible is “rest,” so why do we literally run away from it?
A. “The Lord replied, ‘My presence will go with you and I will give you rest…Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest [--Jesus]…Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it” (Exodus 33:14; Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:1)
B. One Detroit hospital declares its ER patients will be seen in 20 min or the treatment is free. The paper notes since this offer business has been up 30%. I wonder what other rates are up there, like medical accidents and death.
C. Another research report on trying to curb health costs studied two groups of doctors. The first group was encouraged to spend < 5 minutes with each patient, but to order whatever tests they wanted to help them make the diagnosis. The second group was instructed to do as little testing as possible, but spend as much time as they need to LISTEN, then make an accurate diagnosis using their intuitive & clinical experience.
D. Guess which group had the better results BY FAR? The second. Hear me, I’m not putting down doctors. This research shows their experiential knowledge, along w/ the patient as their partner, is far better than the sophisticated, expensive testing that’s one of the key drivers of skyrocketing healthcare costs. But this takes TIME, and we’re all in a hurry.
IV. There is some evidence that today’s church needs sermons that are deeper into theological and biblical issues; meat vs. milk. Ponder: One of the eight great divisions in any theology book is “Man” (along w/ God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Bible, End Times, Sin & Salvation).
A. One of the subdivisions under “man” could be “rest” and “relationships,” HUGE biblical themes. This sermon relates to both. Sabbath-keeping relates to both. We need a theology of both.
B. Ever visit a 2/3 world country? Even notice how materially poor, but relationship rich they are comp w/ us? One goal of this message is to help you become more “relationship rich.”
C. Have you ever done one of those values clarifying tests where you list your top 10 most enjoyable activities. Then you place a $ by any which requires more than $20. Most people don’t have many $ dotting their lists.
D. How can you become more relationship rich? Maybe the biggest impediment to that isn’t stuff as much as it is schedule. Jesus cares about BOTH (Mt 13:22).
1. Might the SD of “slowing” help? You intentionally put yourself into situations where you have to slow down. You get into the slowest, longest line at the grocery store. You drive in the slow lane on purpose. You walk WITH a child instead of carrying them so you’re forced to move at their pace and stop when each muse of curiosity strikes them.
2. How about the SD of “stopping.” This is when you realize you are not living much in the moment. You’re always focused on or fretting some future event or pondering some past one. But you are not present in that moment. Closely related, we tune out the people we’re with. We let other people move into that space that has high rental value. It should be for the people you’re with.
3. In “stopping” you fully engage in the present experience or with the present person. You live in the now. You also try to hear what God is saying and doing right then. List ways you can you start the SD of stopping?
4. Before you disregard these, consider the commands of Christ and Scripture that I’ve read for you today. Consider the rewards, esp the reward of “rest,” His rest. Consider the high costs of racing through life. This may not just be a sign of a disordered schedule, but a disordered heart.
5. Do you want to pray for either your hurried schedule or your heart? Closing song(s). Altar call.
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