Anyone Feeling This
I'm in a Hurry To Get Things Done
Do you recall the 1980's hit from Alabama, "I'm In a Hurry?" The chorus catches anyone's ear.
"I'm in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life's no fun.
All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why.
I am not writing about the busy life or a life of hard work. I am writing about the pace we continue to keep and a mindset we have formed.
Webster defines Hurry:
1. To move or act more quickly than normal.
2. A behavior pattern characterized by continual rushing and anxiousness.
3. A general feeling in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so tends to perform every task faster and to get more flustered when encountering any kind of delay.
Anyone feeling this?
The book, "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry," has a little self-inventory available. I will pen some of them and you decide if any of these examples ring true for you. I was surprised how many I can struggle with when it comes to hurry.
- Irritability-You get mad, frustrated, or just annoyed way too easily. Little, normal things irk you. People have to tiptoe around your ongoing low-grade negativity, if not anger.
- Hypersensitivity-All it takes is a minor comment to hurt your feelings, a little turn of events can throw you into an emotional funk and ruin your day. Minor things quickly escalate to major emotional events. Depending on your personality, this might show up as anger or nitpickyness or anxiety or depression or just tiredness.
- Restlessness- When you actually do try to slow down and rest, you can't relax. You have quiet time with God but can't focus your mind.
- Workaholic (or just nonstop activity)-You just don't know when to stop. Or worse, how to. Another hour, another day, another week. Result: When the day does end you have nothing left to give to your spouse, children, or loved ones. They get the grouchy, overtired you.
- Emotional numbness-You don't enter into another's pain, you just don't have time for it.
Anyone feeling this?
If hurry is a mindset, once again through scripture reading, we can retrain our minds. Oh, it takes much practice.
Deuteronomy: 31:6 "Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."
Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Proverbs 19:21 "There are many plans in a man's heart, Nevertheless the Lord's counsel-that will stand."
The poet Mary Oliver, wrote: "Worship and joy start with the capacity to turn our minds' attention toward the God who is always with us in the now."
Now is the time to start.
Until next time, Pam.
