Tag Archives: “hurry sickness”

Daily Riches: Why We Can’t Slow Down (Vincent de Paul, Thoreau, Pete Scazzero, and Andréana Lefton)

Posted on by under Busyness, Contemplation and Activism, Hurry Sickness, Striving and drivenness

“The one who hurries delays the things of God.” Vincent de Paul

“Nothing can be more useful to a man than a determination not to be hurried.” H. D. Thoreau

“Slowing down can be terrifying because doing nothing productive leaves us feeling vulnerable, emotionally exposed and naked. Overworking hides these feelings of inadequacy or worthlessness, not just from others but also from ourselves. As long as we keep busy, we can outrun that internal voice that says things like:

I am never good enough.
I am never safe enough.
I am never perfect enough.
I am never extraordinary enough.
I am never successful enough.

Do you recognize that voice? Far too many of us use workaholism to run from these shaming messages. …Sadly, I’ve discovered that this distorted concept of identity can be found from Asia to Latin America, from North America to Africa, from the Middle East to Europe.” Pete Scazzero

“An active life is a good and laudable thing. Action has its seasons too – one of which is inaction.” Andréana Lefton

“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.’”
Isaiah 30:15

 Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you keep busy to “outrun that internal voice” that shames you with charges that you’re not good enough? Are you good enough?
  • Does “doing nothing productive leave you feeling vulnerable, emotionally exposed and naked?” Could feeling that way be something good that God could use?
  • What do you miss out on when you refuse “quietness and trust?”

Abba, help me listen to your loving voice, not those internal voices that want to side-track and shame me.

For More:  Waiting for God by Simone Weil

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These “Daily Riches” are for your encouragement as you seek after God and he seeks after you. I hope you’ll follow and share my blog. My goal is to share something of unique value with you daily. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

“I practice daily what I believe; everything else is religious talk.”

 

Daily Riches: Hurry and the Purpose of Life (Vianna Moog, Mother Teresa, Heidi Baker, Eugene Peterson) *

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness, Daily Office, Hurry Sickness, Loving Well, Sabbath Rhythms, Striving and drivenness

“It seemed then, that my purpose in life was to get the most out of life. … I still assumed that the way to this was to strive to do more and more things … always driving to do more things – to read more books, to learn more languages, to see more people, not to miss anything … a miser-like grabbing and piling up of experience.” Marion Milner in A Life of One’s Own  …………. “I began my lifework on the assumption that I might not live long enough to accomplish everything I’d like to. If I wanted to do anything worthwhile in my life I’d have to hurry up. I have been in a hurry ever since.” Robert Schuller

“The American no longer knows how to contemplate; he does not know how to reflect or even rest.”  Brazilian sociologist Vianna Moog

“The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. People are starving for love because everyone is in such a great rush.”  Mother Teresa

“Ministry is simply about loving the person in front of you. It’s about stopping for the one and being the very fragrance of Jesus to a lost and dying world.”  Heidi Baker

“When we are noisy and when we are hurried we are incapable of intimacy—deep, personal, complex relationships. ” Eugene Peterson

“This is what the Sovereign Yahweh,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.’”
Isaiah 30:15

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Are you anxiously “striving” for more and more? Have you worried that you “might not live long enough” to accomplish everything you want to accomplish? What happens to you in the grip of such fears?
  • According to Moog, Americans don’t know how to contemplate, reflect “or even rest.” In Isaiah’s day God called the people to rest in him, but they “would have none of it.” Do you refuse God’s rest so you can strive for more and more? If so, why?
  • Salvation and strength are found in “quietness and trust” and “rest.” How can you create times of quiet, trusting rest in your daily schedule? your weekly schedule?

Abba, teach me to rest in you, trusting your care for me. Work in me to break the hold that “more” has on my life as I refuse, not your rest, but my striving.

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: When You’re Addicted to the Approval of Others (John Ortberg) *

Posted on by under applause, approval addiction, Ego Issues

“Vast amounts of human behavior, though painstakingly disguised, are simply attempts at showing off. … If we begin listening for these kinds of comments, we will discover that attempting to control the way others think of us is one of the primary uses we put words to in contemporary society. Human conversation is largely an endless attempt to convince others that we are more assertive or clever or gentle or successful than they might think if we did not carefully educate them.”  John Ortberg

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to your neighbor,
for we are all members of one body.”
Ephesians 4:25

From The Head to the Heart

  • How much does it matter to you what other people think of you?
  • In conversation or on social media, do you work hard to cause people to see you in a certain way? What does your answer say about you?
  • What would it look like if you stopped trying to “carefully educate” others so they would think well of you? Can you name several things that would change?

Abba, you are enough for me. You suffice. I only really need to please you. Help me to remember this in the midst of all the temptations to do otherwise. Help me to live each day for your approval.

__________

For More: The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg

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“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.” – Augustine   My prayer is that these Daily Riches will always be offered and received in this irenic, unpresumptuous spirit. Thank you for reading and sharing my daily posts. Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Hurry and the Purpose of Life (Vianna Moog and Mother Teresa)

Posted on by under Busyness, Hurry Sickness

“It seemed then, that my purpose in life was to get the most out of life. … I still assumed that the way to this was to strive to do more and more things … always driving to do more things – to read more books, to learn more languages, to see more people, not to miss anything … a miser-like grabbing and piling up of experience.” Marion Milner in A Life of One’s Own

“I began my lifework on the assumption that I might not live long enough to accomplish everything I’d like to. If I wanted to do anything worthwhile in my life I’d have to hurry up. I have been in a hurry ever since.” Robert Schuller

“The American no longer knows how to contemplate; he does not know how to reflect or even rest.”  Brazilian sociologist Vianna Moog

“The world is lost for want of sweetness and kindness. People are starving for love because everyone is in such a great rush.”  M. Teresa

“This is what the Sovereign Yahweh,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.’”
Isaiah 30:15

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Are you anxiously “striving” for more and more? Have you worried that you “might not live long enough” to accomplish everything you want to accomplish? What happens to you in the grip of such fears?
  • According to Moog, Americans don’t know how to contemplate, reflect “or even rest.” In Isaiah’s day God called the people to rest in him, but they “would have none of it.” Do you refuse God’s rest so you can strive for more and more? If so, why?
  • Salvation and strength are found in “quietness and trust” and “rest.” How can you create times of quiet, trusting rest in your daily schedule? your weekly schedule?

Abba, teach me to rest in you, trusting your care for me. Work in me to break the hold that “more” has on my life as I refuse, not your rest, but my striving.

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Approval Addiction (John Ortberg)

Posted on by under Uncategorized

“Vast amounts of human behavior, though painstakingly disguised, are simply attempts at showing off. … If we begin listening for these kinds of comments, we will discover that attempting to control the way others think of us is one of the primary uses we put words to in contemporary society. Human conversation is largely an endless attempt to convince others that we are more assertive or clever or gentle or successful than they might think if we did not carefully educate them.”  John Ortberg

“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood
and speak truthfully to your neighbor,
for we are all members of one body.”
Ephesians 4:25

From The Head to the Heart

  • How much does it matter to you what other people think of you?
  • In conversation or on social media, do you work hard to cause people to see you in a certain way? What does your answer say about you?
  • What would it look like if you stopped trying to “carefully educate” others so they would think well of you? Can you name several things that would change?

Abba, you are enough for me. You suffice. I only really need to please you. Help me to remember this in the midst of all the temptations to do otherwise. Help me to live each day for your approval.

__________

For More: The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in less than 400 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Patience With Yourself (Teilhard de Chardin)

Posted on by under Hurry Sickness, Patience with Yourself

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some states of instability – and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you. And accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”   Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ ” Matthew 25:40 NASV

“What if you discovered that the least of the brethren of Jesus,10171841_10151987010386851_1794316792549983598_n
the one who needs your love the most,
the one you can help the most by loving,
the one to whom your love will be most meaningful –
what if you discovered that
this least of the brethren of Jesus … is you?”
Then do for yourselves
what you would do for others.”
Carl Jung

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Think of all the ways you are “impatient to reach the end” of something or other. Now think about the inevitably “slow work of God.” Obviously, patience is necessary!
  • It seems to me that de Chardin’s words make a powerful springboard for prayer. Read though what he says slowly. Let it sink in, and see if you can let it turn into prayer, phrase by phrase.
  • de Chardin counsels us to “accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.” Think about “accepting” anxiety, and feeling yourself “in suspense and incomplete.” Can you do that? How will you?

Abba, help me to trust in your slow work in me – to not give up on you, or on me. May I find you in my incompleteness and the anxiety that so often comes when I look in the mirror.

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For More: Hearts on Fire by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in less than 300 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Loving Well (John Ortberg)

Posted on by under Hurry Sickness, Loving Well

“Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart. …The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to love. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have. …It is because it kills love that hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life.”  John Ortberg

“Cease striving and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:10 NLB

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • When you’re in a hurry, do you have a sense that your heart is “disordered?” Can you move around in a hurry and still experience a sense of connectedness or union with God?
  • “Love always takes time, and time is one thing hurried people don’t have.” That’s probably convicting to many of us, but it powerfully points out the problem with hurry. How often do you think you fail to love as you should simply because you “don’t have the time?”
  • If hurry is “the great enemy of the spiritual life” it’s quite a threat. What daily practice can you adopt, or what kind of change to your routine, so that you address the problem of hurry?

Abba, it seems I was born in a hurry – and that when I hurry it is often for no good reason. I know it’s causing me to fail at loving well. Help me to “cease striving and know that you are God” – to learn that it’s not necessary for me to live frantically for you to be exalted in my world, in my life – or in this day.

__________

For More: The Life You Always Wanted by John Ortberg

_________________________________________________

The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to provide you with something of uncommon value each day in less than 300 words. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)