Hurry, Ep. 20

We discuss the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey guys, welcome to the Lafayette Prayer Room Podcast. We're located in Lafayette, Louisiana, and today we're talking about hurry in our life, which we all deal with on a daily basis. We did a book about a year ago in the prayer room in a course that we were doing called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. And today we're gonna kind of comb through the highlights of that with you guys. And it's more than just being busy. Hurry can be one of the greatest threats to our spiritual lives as well. We can be doing all the right things, but be doing them in a hurry all the time.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Yeah, we often think of sin as just like the obvious failures that we that we do, but it's sometimes more subtle than that. It's just the rushed, distracted life, and little by little you grow more distant uh and disconnected from the Lord and even from others and even knowing what's going on in your own own self. It doesn't just steal your peace and your joy, it steals a lot of things because there's no such thing as an easy life. Like we look at inventions of man and like we've been inventing devices that are time saving. And although I'm I'm extremely grateful for those time-saving devices, they don't really save us all that much time because we just add instead of saying, okay, well, I save that time and then use it for some, other things are added to our plate. And now Americans are more busy than ever rushing from task to task, thing to thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Yeah, through the centuries, all the modern day inventions that make our life really easy. I'm very thankful I have a washing machine. It does save me a lot of time and it makes life easier for me. There are so many things in our daily lives that that are great, and they were partly created to help save time. Uh, but it's true with each progressing year of life, we're we're we have less time than ever before, and we're more hurried than we were before. So, part of why a lot of these things were invented, it's it's defeated the purpose because we have even less. And where did the time go? Well, we filled it with other things, and it's like I could just hear Jesus say to I our entire generation, like Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary. And Mary chose it because she slowed down enough to sit at the feet of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, and when we look at Jesus, our great example, we don't see Jesus bothered and in a hurry all the time. It wasn't like he was rushing from here to here or whatever. He was slowly walking, just doing life, listening to the Father. He wasn't in a hurry, which is why he could disciple the disciples. It's why he could notice the widow who had just lost her son and heal him. Like he had time in his in his life to notice people, to minister to them, and to meet their needs.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, if anybody had a reason to hurry, it was Jesus. He was on a mission to save the world and he had three and a half years really for his ministry. He didn't have the 70 or 80 years that we even have. He had a very small window and a monumental task of saving humanity. So if anybody had a reason to hurry, it would be him, but we don't see that. He was patient, he was attentive, he took his time with people, he was present, he moved slow enough to be interrupted. It makes me think of the woman at the well. That was an interruption to his day, but I don't think he saw those things as interruptions. I think he saw them as opportunities, which is not how I see interruptions. I see them as interruptions, I see them as aggravations, I see uh things unplanned, things that stop me from my time frame or my task list as uh aggravates me. It puts my timeline off now. And I want to be like Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

As Americans, our schedules are just too full. And we've convinced ourselves, and the culture has tried very hard to convince us that it is normal and it is right to live that way, that that's what success looks like, that that's just what American families look like. And you have to live this way. And it is a lie from the enemy that is stealing our um our time with the Lord, it's stealing our relationship because we we buy the lie. Well, I have to do all those things. And the truth is we don't have to do any of those things.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

And the scary part is it that hurry feels normal, it is normal. So then we never evaluate it as something that I can correct, something I can improve if if it's uh under the banner of normal and everybody else does it, then it's not even, I don't even look at hurry as a problem. I don't look at rushing as a problem. I just think it's how everybody lives that is normal. And something that is dysfunctional, becoming normal, is never healthy. That's a dangerous place to be. And spiritually, living a life that is rushed directly impacts prayer because how we live begins to be how we are wired. It's how we think, it's how we process, it's how we react. And so that carries into my time with the Lord to imagine that I just file everything else away when I get before the Lord and I'm just peaceful and patient. No, I'm wired a different way because of how I have done life as on a normal basis. So silence is foreign to me. Like stillness is awkward. I don't know what to do. Reading my Bible is another to-do list thing on my to-do list. So it directly has an impact with my relationship with the Lord, and that's a high priority with me. My relationship with the Lord, my interaction with the Lord, feeling, hearing, seeing Him. So if something is working against that, then that is now a problem, which hurry and rushing is.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah, there are many things in our schedule that we actually can say no to. And it's okay if you disappoint people, it's okay if you you shuffle it and say, Yeah, I can't do it on this day, but I can give you time this amount of time on another day. Like no one needs to get a hundred percent of my time, and I can't be and I'm not called to be everything to everyone. Like they need the Lord too. So, you know, we need to stay focused on what God has called us to and let them stay focused on what God has called them to. I mean, we don't have to say yes to everything, is the point. And if I look at my schedule, I'm pretty clear like, no, I'm not gonna say yes on the days that I go to prayer, but I'm also gonna guard the other days because there's things that have to get done in order to live this life. So it's guarding not just prayer time, it's guarding all the time. And what am I giving my energy to, my time, my attention, so that I can slow down whenever it's time.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

Yeah, and I know I want to give time and attention to my family and to other things that are important. So I'm gonna look at my schedule to make sure there's time in there for that so they're not neglected because I'm going to the prayer room. Like it's not like family or God, like I don't wait until that's the only two options in my schedule. I plan my time with those I love, with other things in my life that are priority work, so that when I do want to go to the prayer rooms, the days that are set aside for that, my time with the Lord at home, same thing. I know I have to budget all of my time to accommodate that. I can't wait until I want to do that and then hope everything else falls in line. It won't ever. Someone will always need something, or something will come up, you'll get invited to something. But I just know from us, and we've done a podcast on this, uh, but because for years we've been working on making those healthy boundaries for our spiritual lives, saying no, holding the boundary once you said it when others try to come, and but it's this, but it's that. Um, but our family adapts, and then they learn to like they know mom's not coming on a Monday, mom's not babysitting on a Monday, like on certain on a Saturday night, they know, and so then now when they want to plan something or need you, they they know, oh, let's do it this other day because it doesn't work out, you know. So on the front end, it seems hard, but after you hold that line a little while, others adapt as well and and realize everything's not falling apart because it's not when they want it, how they want it.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Exactly. Yeah, there's another quote in the book that said, the number one problem you will face is time. People are just too busy to live emotionally healthy and spiritually rich, vibrant lives. And we've kind of, you know, touched the surface of this, but busyness steals myself. Like, I think depression, anxiety, because you're so busy and you're constantly worried about the next thing. And have I actually accomplished everything I need to accomplish? That busyness in my mind steals not only my time from the Lord, but then when a kid wants to come and talk to me about something, well, I'm not really present for them either. Because I'm thinking about hurry up, finish what you have to say, I have something else to do, instead of no, it's 11 p.m. and my 17-year-old wants to talk to me right now, I can lean into it and give to it. So it's you can't live the first commandment or the second if you're in a constant state of hurry.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Another quote in the book, kind of along these lines, is for many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith, it is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them. And that's exactly what you're saying. We do that. We we just ride the surface. We don't go deep, we can't go deep with people. Number one, time, but number two, I don't have the mental and emotional capacity because I'm always on to the next thing. I don't have even the depth available for myself, for them, or for God. If you live a rushed life, then you you live on the surface. That's just what we do until when I go deeper with God, I can actually go deeper with my own thoughts, my own feelings, and others. It makes way for all of that. So the second commandment comes into play when the first commandment lines up. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

One of the central passages in the book was Matthew 11, 28 through 30. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Like Jesus here is offering more than forgiveness. He's saying, Come, I'll show you. I'll show you a better way to live. And so in the book, it talks about us apprenticing under Jesus, like not just um this because discipleship, although we know what it means, it's kind of a a word that doesn't hold much weight, but apprenticeship, because like I have a son that's apprenticing right now to learn a trade. Well, he's doing what those people do. So, like, am I apprenticing under Jesus? More than just hearing the words he said, am I trying to live the Sermon on the Mount life like he lived? Am I walking slower through my day the way Jesus did? Like, this is what my Lord does. Am I doing that as well? He's offering us a way of life, a better way of life.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Yeah, because if I want to experience the life of Jesus, then I have to live like Jesus. And it doesn't mean I do it perfectly, but it means that's an aim in sight. That's a goal that I am mindful of and I'm working towards. Because there's a key distinction between believing in Jesus and living like Jesus, like you were saying with the apprenticeship, because I feel like now discipleship has almost become such a common word in the church, which is good, though discipleship is part of the lingo and the goal at church. But sometimes I feel like we just see if I go to a small group, I'm being discipled, and there's a little more to being a disciple than just um being a little bit involved with a group, you know, or a Bible study. That's part of it, definitely. But there is more to it where he's the Lord of our lives, and we are not trying to add him in. We are trying to, I see it more as an unraveling normal life and putting it back like he wants it to be, looking at him as the model and what that looks like for me in 2026 in Lafayette, Louisiana in a prayer room with the family, uh, letting him tell me how to live because I do want the life he had. I do want the connection he had with the father, the pace he had of moving through his life to accomplish what was the father's goal for him to do. Uh, so I want to look at how he did it.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Yeah, and I mean what he's offering, this you can come and search out this deep, unsearchable ocean of the Lord. Like he's offering it to us. I don't want to get to the end of my life and be like, there was so much more I could have seen, experienced, known about the Lord. And of course, there will be stuff I I missed, obviously. But as much as I can have today, I'm I want it. So if it means slowing down and we think like, oh, you have to give this up or trade that, but once you do it, the trade-off is so much better. Like Jesus in all his wisdom told us to live this way, and then when we do it, we're shocked that it's better. You know, like, no, it's so much better, and you give a little and you get so much more, and you realize, okay. So it gets your hands to open up a little bit more on that schedule. Okay, you can take that away. Because I'm not really, it's not a sacrifice anymore. I'm getting you, I'm getting Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

There is that adventure that we go on with him. And to go on the adventure, there has to be a level of curiosity, and that is something you don't have time for if you are rushed. It's something that doesn't even enter your mind if you are rushed. But if you are really seeking out all that he died for us to have and not wanting to waste what he paid a high price for me to interact with him in today, not just an eternity, but so much is made available today that I don't want to waste. I want all that he'll give me. I want to accomplish all that he wants me to do, but I can at a hurried pace. I can if I do life like everybody else. I can't if I do life like the culture, if I buy the lie that I have to do everything. So I want to undo that and I want to have curiosity. I want to go on the adventure, I want to seek him out as far as I can go, as far as he will let the human heart go.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

So a question early on in the book was what do I need to do to become the me I want to be? And that really challenged me because I had to think, well, what do I want to be? And not like just what goals do I want to meet in my job or as a mom? No, as a person, who do I want to be before the Lord? And then once you have a vision, if you want to be a Mary of Bethany sitting at his feet, if that's a true vision of your life, then every choice has to be judged through that lens. Does that saying yes to that get me further or closer to that goal? Like if I say yes to all of these things, am I going to be able to be my life vision? A Mary of Bethany sitting at his feet. And so we start weighing it out on that. And for me, I just I have a schedule, I plug in all, I plug in prayer times first, worship time, and then other things have to bow to that, not the other way around, which is so countercultural. And what people will tell you is that's really legalistic or that's religious. And I would say, no, it's not, it's not religious, it's not legalistic. It's saying I prioritize you, Lord, and then try to do it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:41

Yeah, and one thing that separates legalism uh from just genuine heart is there's a desire to do it, or there's an obligation to do it, and obeying the Lord out of obligation still counts as obedience, that's still better than not. But when there's a desire, like we're trying to get to the prayer room, we're trying to add hours to the prayer room because we desire to be with him more. That is not what legalism is. Someone who thinks that's legalism doesn't know the actual definition of legalism. Desire is not obligation or because I have to, it's the opposite of that. And also, what do I want to become? What do I want to be in God if we're not careful as Christians? We can do the well, whatever God wants me to be, which is kind of an aimless way to live. And it kind of gets us off the hook of doing our part to work with him to become that, because he does have an idea of what he wants us to be. And he's actually wired us, he's wired us, and he has built our heart and our personality and our desires for that goal. He made us to be what he's dreamed us to be. So I want to do my part in discovering who I really am, what my thoughts really are, what my my desires, my feelings really are, because I know part of that plays into what he's made me to be. And there's a lot of uh dying to sell to become what he wants me to be. So those are some of the goals in sight and spending time with him, going deeper in the word, are huge components of getting to that place.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Yeah. In the book, it gave us like this framework for slowing down, and there were four spiritual practices: silence and solitude, Sabbath, simplicity, and slowing down. So the first one, the silence and solitude, it kind of hit me funny because I would have thought this would have been easy for me. I'm naturally an introvert, um, not a huge talker, although I mean I'll talk to friends and stuff, but I would have thought this one would have been so easy. But then we were doing the book and uh it recommended two minutes of silence, like set a timer, do it, and I think it's at like three times a day. Um, and I realized that two minutes of actual silence, where I wasn't letting my brain go off on anything, was actually way harder than I once thought it was gonna be.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, it absolutely was. I felt like when we first started doing the two minutes of silence, I felt like I was in a strait jacket, is what it felt like because and and we held our feet to the fire on this. We we even tried to stop the dialogue that would run in our mind. Because of course it was two minutes of silence. We weren't gonna say anything out of our mouths. We're normally in a downtime or a slow time with the Lord, we would maybe pray in tongues, you know, or go into gratitude. Well, I know for me, once I zip my lips in that silence, it would just happen in my head. I would be literally praying in tongues in my head, or I would be starting to go into gratitude. Or if I remember uh one of our friends saying I'll I would go into repentance. And so we were like, No, we're gonna sit before him and just be present with him, not have the outer dialogue going on in our mind. That's still not really silence. So we really wanted to quiet it down to become more aware of him looking at me in that moment and me to look at him in that moment. And I know for me it was I like you thought, well, we meditate all the time in the prayer room, you know, we sit and wait on him to speak. So, you know, I don't I don't think that's gonna be hard. I thought it was, I was kind of looking forward to it. Like, oh, this will be great. And I started doing it, and I was like, I'm terrible at this. Uh, but the more I got into it, the more I realized one thing that surprised me off the bat was I was not as well in touch with my own feelings and thoughts as I thought I was. Um, but it goes to a rhythm of hurry, was why I was not, because I was sitting in those those two minutes and longer sometimes um and realizing I feel anxious. What am I feeling anxious about? Whereas when I'm hurrying or even feeling my time with the Lord with busy things, good things, but I I'm not giving myself time to breathe, time to take inventory, time to really feel because I'm not focusing on something. So I was surprised how many things in me I was not even looking at or giving myself space and time that that two minutes of silence started to focus the light on. So the next one was Sabbath. Uh, and this one, I also thought I'm gonna have no problems with this because I grew up Sabbathing. Uh, because we grew up going to church on Sunday morning and Sunday night. That's back in the day when we had a Sunday night service too. So my whole family, we would go to church on Sunday morning, we come home, we would all nap, and then we go back to church on Sunday night. And that carried through into my adult life. I still do that, even though we don't have service on Sunday nights. But to me, I did that. But now I am realizing I'll go to church and I'll nap. I look forward, everybody who knows me all week. I look forward to my Sunday afternoon nap. But then I'll get up after that and I'll kind of Sunday night becomes a little work night. And it's mostly in prep for the week or doing some things that didn't get done in the week. Um, so when I started purposefully not doing that on a Sunday night, I'm not a TV person. So to even just sit on the couch and just watch whatever, you know, just give downtime without me having to um concentrate on something or even preparing stuff for prayer. You know, I'm reading a lot or covering a lot of material to prepare for something, but just to let my mind not be on something, I found challenging and realized I'm I'm kind of tripped up by it. It took me a while to really stop turning half of the Sabbath until work day.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I agree. Uh Sabbath was a big one for me because in my mind Sabbathing meant meant going to church. So we did that. But the whole resting thing was just not a part of my life. Um, it's definitely the day where make sure all the laundry's done because school is starting, work is starting, like meal prep, do all whatever things happen uh to be. So I've had to change the way I do my other days to kind of prepare for, hey, we get to Sabbath on Sunday. And it doesn't have to be Sunday for a while. Um, when we first started this book, I actually did it from Friday after prayer until Saturday going back to prayer. Um, but now we've transitioned, but just having a specific day of the week where you you choose to rest and do whatever brings you just that built-in rest, read a book or whatever, just be leisure, leisure activity in your home. And uh it has changed my life in a way. It makes me like Monday comes and I don't, I'm not already depleted. I'm I'm fresh for Monday. And when things get real busy, I can be like, it's okay because I have Sunday's coming. Like I can I can do these things because there is rest coming. So it just makes everything better. I mean, of course, the Lord knows he's so wise, but it really does.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

And it contributes to pulling away that hurry rhythm in life because that Sabbath is it's kind of like the two minutes of silence. It's kind of a shock to the system, like it's a break in the pattern, um, which then makes the hurry not as just building on itself all of the time and that overwhelm pressure of another day, another week is coming, and I haven't caught up from last week. No, I did. And like you said, it does require planning because to be able to Sabbath, uh, the things that I would have gotten done that still have to get done have to get done at a different time. So I have to plan for that. So then I'm not doubling on Monday or running the whole week behind on stuff because I just didn't plan and I didn't do it on Sunday or whatever the day you're gonna Sabbath. So it does take some planning and some organizing, but it's doable and it does just give you um energy for the week. There is a different level of patience there. There is not as much a necessity to rush because a slow down pace has entered your world a little bit. Just that one day, it brings a slower pace than the rest of our week. So it kind of introduces a new norm that may trickle into other times. And yeah, I'm gonna get worn down in the week. I'm gonna get busy by the end of the week. I just I remember when my kids were young. By the time we hit Wednesday, which we had Wednesday night services then, so it was school all day. And then in those days in the afternoons, we'd stay from school. We had our youth groups had programs and we'd stay until service at night. So my house was a tornado because nothing got done Wednesday. You only got two days of the week left, you know, for school. So we were just running on fumes, like barely getting out the door, and the house was a mess. And I hope we got everything we needed. Um, but had I had this wisdom then, I definitely would have done it different. So I know what it is to get into the week and you're worn out, you're overwhelmed, you're busy. Uh, but this Sabbath helps kind of rewire. And if I can organize stuff to Sabbath to rest, um, then I can organize other things in my week and just organizing myself better so that I can do it. Because the Sabbath, God made the Sabbath for man for us to rest. And he created and then he rested. And in doing that, he built into the DNA of creation, rest. We are made to function best when we rest. Like he loves us enough to say, do it this way, and life will be better.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

So another um big point in the book was simplicity, and we've done a whole podcast on living simply, but simplicity, if you're gonna live a life in God, is necessary. Um, we can't have an endless pursuit of more because possessions cost money and you have to upkeep them and then you have to clean them or whatever. All the things, the nicer house, the bigger house, the cars, that all of that it costs more than money, it costs time as well. And so we just start to look at what do I really want out of life? And then picking those things and a simpler life just creates space for less anxiety and depression and fear. I just have seen people that live simpler are just happier in general.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah, because reaching for more possessions, bigger house, nicer car, more commitments, more achievements. Um, but many times abundance in those areas we think that we want brings anxiety with it. Because now there's upkeep. Now I I got it, I gotta use it, I gotta spend time. Now that's another thing on my plate. Like it doesn't always bring what we think it's gonna bring, it brings what we didn't want uh in the end. Yeah, if the goal is more time with him for prayer room people, that's that's always something we're making little tweaks in our lives because we want more time with him, more time in the word. Uh, if that's the goal, then I'm always looking at what is unnecessary, what helps me get to that goal, and a lot of clutter in my life, a lot of stuff, a lot of activity that detracts from my goal. So that's not that doesn't look attractive to me anymore because being with him is what I long for most. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Now I don't think I'd ever go as far as he went with like the two shirts in the closet type of uh deal, but I can see just the beauty of not having to make all of those decisions, these little decisions everyday um simplicity has been. I'm still it's something I'm still working on. I think I'm I've definitely not achieved a simple life, but I'm I'm closer than I was.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

Then another component was slowing down. So intentionally choosing slower practices. Um, and I mean to meet the number one for everybody would just be driving more patiently because I am guilty of uh being in a rush and the slow poke in front of me is about to kill me, you know, I'm stressed over it uh when that's not necessary. If I would give myself more time and more margin, I don't need to be rushing. Uh also in the book, I wouldn't go as far as him. He tries to stand in the longest line at the grocery store, you know, like I'm not doing that. Uh, but in the book, it talks about a rule of life, which is in the monastic orders, they chose to do life together around a rule of life, which means a set of practices around the way of Jesus. A rule of life is when our schedule aligns with our values, and that's kind of what we do at the prayer room. We're a little community of people that are trying to do longer hours with Jesus and order all of our life to accommodate that goal and to love our families well.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah, we want to have what we call margin in our day. So I don't want to fill up my schedule to max capacity because ultimately you're gonna get stuck in traffic or you're gonna have a flat tire or fill in the blank. Your kid lost their shoes that they just took off last night. Like, where are your shoes? You're running late now. So if you're at max capacity, then every problem becomes a huge problem that sends you into this tailspin. Whereas if I've left room in my day, well, I know it takes me 40 minutes or 30 minutes to drive to church. I can leave 40 minutes early. And if somebody's driving slow, it's okay. Come not late. Like you want to have capacity. That way you're not just it's it creates less stress in your life.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

We do this. I've done this many times. Uh, you know, I got one night home this week with my family, and then we're like, let's go do this. No, when you have those times where you don't have something, don't fill it. Or I'm famous for I did give myself extra margin time to get ready. Oh, I have 10 minutes, I'll start some kind of housework, and then I'll do it too long and now I'm late. Like, don't fill the extra margin time with something else. Just go at a slower pace. I'm always trying to be more efficient, get something done that I'll have to do later. Like, it's an unwiring of that kind of mentality to make myself slow down. It does go against everything in me, but I haven't arrived. I am very much still working on that.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

But you can see as you do it and as you talk to the Lord with it, like, doesn't he give you creative, efficient ways to do things? I mean, he's always doing that for me. I or even if I'm about to forget something because I'm going slower, like simple things like my iPad to come with my notes, hey, it's still on the charger, you know, just like, and it's okay. I have time, I could go get it, like that kind of stuff. Like, he helps you if you're asking and putting it before him.

SPEAKER_00 31:17

He really does. And if you're rushing, even if he's talking to you, sometimes you don't hear him because you're rushing. But if you are slowed down, it doesn't mean I'm just la la la. It doesn't even mean that extreme, but it just means I'm not racing, I'm not already at my wit's end because I should have been out the door five minutes ago, that kind of stuff. Uh, I just hear him more, and he does give creative answers, he does give just a better way to do something, or he helps me be more organized in everything, like my stuff for the prayer room, running the household, stuff with the kids, planning something with other people, like in my job. Like he does, he gives me creative ways to just be more organized, more thought out, so that then in a week or two, I'm not stressed then because he helped me plan earlier. So he really does give us wisdom if we ask he helps us. Okay, so what challenged us most, um I know for me, one of the things that challenged me was how much I picked up my phone in downtime moments. Uh, I started looking at that more soberly in this time frame that we were doing all this. And I just realized there is way too um, I don't spend a long time at once on my phone, but it was a lot of little moments that I didn't need to pick it up at all. I I didn't do any, I didn't do anything really on my phone. I didn't, you know, oh, I needed to buy these three household items. Well, most of the time it wasn't that in those moments. So for me, it was just even now, sometimes I'll just mindlessly go to grab and I'll be like, no, I don't always, but I do it more than I used to because of this.

SPEAKER_01 32:59

Yeah, another one for me was this um addiction to productivity because I think I could make myself feel good about me if I could say, well, I was very productive. I got this, this, this, this done. I love a checklist, I love goals, and I love accomplishing them. And I think there's value in that. However, some of my identity is wrapped up into that. Like, if I haven't accomplished things, then who am I? And what can I tell the Lord about? You know, but no, those two minutes of silence, He loves me just for me sitting here. I didn't have to come with, hey, look all the things I got done for you this week, you know. So I was was and probably still am more addicted to being productive than I thought.

SPEAKER_00 33:42

And those two minutes help undo some of that wiring for sure, because we we do put self-worth into accomplishments, and even there's a lot of good accomplishments that are from the Lord to do, but I don't want my self-worth to be in that. When I sit in front of him in silence or in deep moments of worship or intimacy with him, I am getting my self-worth there. I am letting him define me there, which then helps me not look at other outlets to kind of prove my worth or myself or my value. It helps the like the whole circle of how the relationship with the Lord goes, it it feeds into not doing those things and getting my satisfaction or validation from those things. Uh, and Paul says in the book, he talks about um 1 Thessalonians 4.11, where Paul says, make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. And just the juxtaposition with Paul's words, right? They are ambition and quiet life, like they're opposites. Like ambition is striving and going after something, putting effort intentionally into doing something. And a quiet life is simple and dialed down. But we know from the little bit of effort years we've had in this, it takes everything I have to live a simple and a quiet life. It goes against all of the culture, everything in me. Uh, it is ambitious to try to live a quiet life. It's true.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Yeah, and as a mom, I'm discipling a group of the next generation. And so I want to apprentice under Jesus in such a way that I'm not making disciples of Janie because I don't want to make them many versions of me, busy and distracted and hurried and stressed. I want to lead them to Jesus and slowing down helps do that.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

Yeah, I'm just even as you're saying that, I'm thinking of just friends through the years that have come just asking for advice or whatever. And I I can see because I've been looking at it in my life, I can see, oh, they are way too busy. This is part of what's weighing in on this problem. And even any kind of suggestion, like, hey, you're too busy, can you take some things off your plate? And always the response is no, I have to. I have like they're not even willing to consider that you don't actually have to do everything. And I I don't want to raise my kids to live a hurried life, and then they go on into adulthood and their relationship with the Lord with that pattern of that is normal, and I just gotta try to keep juggling, you know, and make everything work and live skimming on the surface, settle for a less than spiritual life. I do not want to have shown that as the pattern that now they are in with the Lord. Yeah, that would be to me like just oh hurt my heart.

unknown 36:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:40

So practical takeaways from this, um turn off unnecessary notifications, especially at the prayer room. Um, I have a smartwatch, so I typically turn it off because I don't want it buzzing at me every five seconds. Um, but turning off those notifications, anything that's gonna draw my attention away. And of I mean, there's times when whatever things come up, but for the most part, Jesus, you're worth my time and attention, and you're you're more deserving than all these other things. So doing that and a Sabbath.

unknown 37:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

And know your personality. Like my personality is not really um oh butterfly. Like I can my phone can light up and I do not feel like I have to pick it up and look at it. I'll I'll get to it later. But if if if you do, if you every time an email comes up or a promotion, whatever, if you pick it up, like then turn off some of the unnecessary notifications, not just in prayer time, just in life. Like it's one less thing you have to look or check or get you on your phone, and now you're going from that thing to the nothing, another thing. So, yes, unnecessary notifications. Uh, and scheduling a Sabbath is huge. I agree. Schedule it. Like if you're married, hopefully you can do it with your husband or wife, ideally. Sometimes you can't, which I get, but schedule it. Like with your kids, they know we're gonna do certain things and we're not gonna do certain things. So make a plan uh with especially those you're living with, you know.

SPEAKER_01 38:07

Um I would say even for the people I work with, because we um we chat about ideas for school because we're teachers or whatever. And I one day I sent and I was like, hey, I'm doing this thing and I'm starting to value Sabbath, and so I'm not gonna answer any school questions. And that was a tough one at first, but but now they're like, Yeah, that's a good idea. And that we all get a break, you know, from that. So I would say extend it further. Yeah, don't do work stuff if at all possible.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yeah, I love that. That's a great idea. Uh, then say no to unnecessary commitments, like whatever that looks like for you. Decide what's really unnecessary. Like, what am I? I'm doing it out of obligation. I don't feel like I should be doing this, I do not want to do this. Like, just that drains you when you have things in your week already busy week, and then you have to do these two or three things that oh, it is a drain on every part of you. Like it's not, it's not worth it. It's even okay if you disappoint some people, like just tell them, look, I can't for a number of reasons. This is just not healthy for me right now. I love you, but I'm not gonna do this. Like, you don't have to be like, you know, blow them off. Like, be honest with them. Just say, I know I'm not supposed to be doing this right now at this time.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

Um, practice the two minutes of silence. I I've kind of gotten away from this practice to be honest, and so this is kind of like I need to do this again, I need to incorporate this back into my my daily time.

SPEAKER_00 39:37

We really challenge you guys, try it, just try it for a week, just try it for two days. Just it's harder than you think, but it will help you more than you think. Just really try. Yeah, I'm not as consistent with it as I want to be. So I'm I've tried to get back on the bandwagon better. Um, also, just create more margin in your schedule. Like for me, whatever my get ready time is to get out the door, I add 15 minutes to, I even add 30 minutes sometimes, just to give myself breathe room. I don't even have to get ready or be grabbing everything in as hurried a pace. Like if I just have that little buffer time with young kids, it gives you moments of not finding stuff, also and getting out the door, creating margin. I did this with my kids. I laid out everything the night before. Uh, we get their clothes together or I'd instruct them and then I'd go look to make sure they had it all. Uh, you know, the socks were there, the book sack was there, they didn't have half the books on a desk somewhere. Um, because in the morning I have zero time to be looking for things. But if I've gone through everything at night, I'd have the lunch boxes or whatever we need on the counters. Uh, so that morning time was just much easier. It was a whole level of stress that was taken away. It created margin. Being organized the night before created margin. So that's something too that I did.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

For me, um, like creating margin in my schedule even looks like going to bed at a reasonable time so that I can wake up and not feel exhausted. Um, and I wake up way earlier than I need to because I don't want to wake up and jump into getting ready. I don't like that kind of morning. I don't enjoy it. I want to have time in the word and with coffee. And so I schedule that in and I wake up earlier on work days to accommodate that because I value that time in the morning. Like, if that's not a value, you do it at night, that's fine. That's your margin time, but I'd say accommodate it. And like that means sometimes I'm like, hey, I love y'all. I'm going to bed because I'm gonna wake up tomorrow. So that's part of the margin in my day. So we pray that this has given you the courage to slow down and to make space. We're not saying try to juggle everything better. We're saying take your schedule, show it to the Lord, and ask where it can be adjusted, like change the way you do life.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

So, in a couple episodes, we want to do an episode on questions from you guys or things that you want us to talk about or address. So if you have questions about prayer, Bible study, uh, or you have some that other people have asked you, or there's a topic you want to talk about, just put it in the comments. Or if you know us, email us, text us, and we'd like to talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Thank you so much for spending your time with us. Until next time. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Bye.