The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – John Mark Comer
In The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (2019), Pastor John Mark Comer tells us how being too busy destroyed his mental health, affected his relationships, and weakened his connection to his faith. By slowing down and limiting his commitments, he gained happiness and wellbeing in every area of his life. I read this book last year and after writing this I will definitely be reading it again and applying more into my life. I will mainly talk about the standout parts of the book for me and the challenges I felt from it. This is split into three sections: The problem, the solution and four practices for un-hurrying your life.
The first section starts by giving the background of why he writes this book giving his personal journey and how it was either change or be swallowed up into what felt like a dark pit. He is writing this after he has applied these practices to his life and lived it out. As I read this section and then looked at the back of the book the question that it poses ‘who are you becoming?’ made me think of the big picture, when I look back in 30 years am I going to like and be proud of how I have lived my life for God.
‘Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life’. Being busy all the time for the wrong reasons can cause us to burn out, to not grow or develop because we are too busy doing and not being. There is now a medical term called Hurry sickness there are 10 main symptoms, here are a few he talks about in the book, irritability, being hypersensitive, becoming defensive, a sense of restlessness where we can’t switch off and we can’t help but listen to music, a podcast, watch the tv, scroll though social media. I don’t know about you but I can relate to this. Through this section there were many things that made me reflect on the way I live my life and how easy it is to follow what society says. John Mark Comer states the importance that whilst reading the book and reflecting we don’t fall into the enemy’s trap of shame and guilt but instead think about how we can make changes this moves us into section 2 where the book starts to look at the solution. In this section we learn a little more about some of the distractions that can come our way, in the book it says that an American spends 705 hours on social media in a year! And 2,737 hours watching TV, and whilst I’d hope that my number would be nowhere near this, I can’t help but feel the reality is probably quite close. But If we were to spend one hour a day before bed reading our bible, we could complete it in around 6 months! Now I’m definitely feeling guilt so as I type, I’m praying that off. But it has made me think about how I spend my time and how I could be spending my time. ‘Every day is a chance, every hour an opportunity and every moment a precious gift. How will you spend yours?’
Let’s start talking about how Jesus is the key;
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.
The book is centred around this verse and how Jesus invites us to take up his yoke to travel through life at his side. I love how it says at his side and not Jesus at our side, to me this speaks volumes about letting go of what we think we should be doing but learning from him how to shoulder the weight of life with ease. For me this is a starting point and a journey that I will have to revisit and reflect on at different points and stages. The book focuses on how we can be an apprentice of Jesus and how ‘in order to experience the life of Jesus we have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.’ Jesus doesn’t offer us an escape he offers us something better: equipment. This is where the book breaks down in more detail how we can take Jesus’ life and teachings as a template, a model for our lives. The book then looks at 4 practices that we can apply to our lives to help us be an apprentice of Jesus:
Silence and solitude
This section looks at the pros and cons of technology how do we really know what it means to be bored anymore when we have so much technology at our fingertips to keep us entertained. In a survey by Microsoft 77 percent of young adults answered ‘yes’ when asked ‘when nothing is occupying my attention the first thing I do is reach for my phone’ Jesus regularly retreats to the wilderness or desert, it’s like he knows where his limit is and so goes to seek quiet time with his father in order to rejuvenate and restore his energy and continue to build his relationship with the father.
Even though this sounds simple, to retreat to quiet when you need, there is a lot more involved. The book goes on to tell us about the two dimensions of silence - external and internal. Whilst most of us will find it easy to switch off the external noise. Turning down the internal can take a lot more effort, work and practice. Solitude isn’t about isolation but more about that one-to-one time with God, its engaging, safe and ‘time set aside to feed and water your soul'. As this section continues it also looks at the consequences of not implementing this into our lives and how like any relationship, the more time you spend together and invest in the stronger it is.
Sabbath
I love how this book challenges me about the Sabbath, how there are so many ways you can implement it but that the core is ‘to stop’ to rest and worship. It was created by God himself ‘the sabbath was made for man’ it is a gift. How have we become so used to not resting, not stopping. If we intentially stopped and rested how productive could we be instead of running on empty. Sabbath is life giving, this makes me question why I don’t make it a priority, someone feel free to ask me how it’s going about this in 6 months. The challenge of being addicted to things instead of enjoying what we have, with God. This is still a huge challenge for me but one I want to tackle.
Simplicity
In this section there are some great reminders of how we have become a culture of treasuring things on earth, and as we all know that’s not what God wants for us. For me this section makes me think how we can be mindful of what God has entrusted to us both financially and with our time. Simplifying needs to become a way of life and the book breaks down steps that we can use to think about what we consume and how. I found this very practical.
Slowing
‘If we can slow down the pace in which we think and move our bodies through the world then maybe we can slow down our souls to a pace at which they can “taste and see that the Lord is good” and that life in his world is good too’ This final section takes us through steps on how we can look to slow our minds, bodies and lifestyle. If we are forever looking to move quickly how much will we miss that god wants us to encounter. I love some of these steps, driving at the speed limit (I admit road rage is a vice of mine). Standing in the longer checkout queue, I love how this challenges me to think about how God might use me or teach me in this simple act. Set a time and time limit for social media (or get off it completely). These are just a couple that spoke to me and made me think about adaptions I can make in my habits and routines.
Overall this book is easy to read in its conversational style. It acknowledges challenges within our culture and also draws upon stories in the bible to help us see the bigger picture of what God wants for our lives. I found this book challenging but extremely relatable and non-judgmental. If your feeling burnt out, tired of life, religion, church. I especially recommend this book.
Aimee Van holland