Working From Rest: "Ruthlessly Eliminate Hurry!"

As a student I spent a few weeks working in the ‘Production Control’ office in an engineering business. It was partly for work experience and mainly to earn some money to spend travelling during a long holiday from studies. It was the 1970s and “time and motion studies” were among the exciting new management techniques being introduced. I was intrigued by the way every activity could be broken down and made more efficient if only waste could be eliminated.  

When I started work in my career, I found it was essential to be as quick and efficient as possible. Then, when we were jointly leading a church plant for a few years, while I was working full time and Catherine was a full time mum with three young children, we had to be very focused and organised. Time management became instinctive and normal.

Of course we made time for prayer and scripture reading and for reflection.  They are such an important part of being God’s children and of learning to be truly human.  I had to “redeem the time” by using my commuting time in the car as well as finding some “quiet” time at home.  

Now I am realising the downside of decades of reinforcing habits of “Do this effectively and move on to the next thing.”  Good time management can leave us with a bad habit of always moving on to the next thing!  As Dallas Willard put it, we must “ruthlessly eliminate hurry” if we are to hear from God and live in Jesus.

In Mark 6:31 we learn that Jesus said to his disciples “Come aside … and rest.”  There are times when we need to give Him undisturbed time without a deadline or strict time to finish. It might not seem very efficient to linger in His presence but in fact there is no better way to be fruitful.  Our aim is not to eliminate wasted activity so we can shave a few seconds off each time we do something. Instead our aim is to bear fruit that will last (John 15:4&16).

Fruit does not come from efficiency but from ‘abiding’ in Jesus - living in an intimate friendship and conversation with Jesus that grows as we take time in His presence, trusting Him in every moment.

- Chris Horton
(Part 1 of 3)
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