Hurry Sickness

I find myself – maybe you do too – attracted to ever-increasing efficiency, productivity and hurry. In our culture, these qualities have become the undercurrents of striving and accomplishing. The need for speed shows up in our lives and in our language: speed reading, speed eating, even speed walking.

How easy it is for us to blindly follow where our culture leads, living at a pace that stretches our personal resources and strains our limits. Without realizing it, our need to “do” can become a series of unbroken tasks which make us feel a sense of being chronically short of time. Even worse, we can begin to believe that we arewhat we do. 

Yet as a Jesus-follower, all of this seems to be at odds with God’s words in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God”. Our meaning comes from our connection with him, not our list of accomplishments. And we’ll never really know him fully unless we sometimes choose to be still.

Furthermore, if we are not careful, our incessant busyness will result in “hurry sickness” – a phrase coined by two cardiologists more than 60 years ago. They used this term to describe a strong correlation they observed: people who were driven to hurry often wound up with damaged hearts.

The pace of life only has intensified in the last six decades, so more and more of us are pursuing accomplishment and productivity and success in ways that actually take a serious physical and mental toll on us. 

Hurry sickness can impact our organs, causing our cardiac, pulmonary, or digestive systems not to function properly (ulcers, anyone?). Hurry sickness can impact our moods, making us more impatient and more prone to anger. We may feel like we’re just sailing along on a sea of accomplishment, when – all of a sudden – some physical or emotional crisis demands our attention. 

Here’s what I find really fascinating. We sometimes view such symptoms (whether emotional or physical) as a nagging, irritating, annoying intrusion upon our productivity. However, couldn’t these things actually be God’s first responders; calling attention to our need to address fundamental issues of body, soul, and spirit? 

It occurs to me that these unwelcome symptoms actually may be a sign of God’s care and grace; alerting us to the fact that we may be hurrying through life rather than living it; exchanging the abundant life Jesus offers for an inferior substitute that actually saps our vitality.

In my own life, I didn’t realize how much I had embraced hurry sickness until my health broke down several years ago. I learned that the way forward was to be honest with myself and with God about how I actually was living. To be honest and admit that hurry sickness was affecting my body and my soul, then to be intentional about pursuing a better rhythm of life. 

Yet the cure was not quick. I discovered that just as it takes us awhile to embrace a lifestyle of hurry sickness, it takes a while to unwind from it and embrace God’s better alternative. Learning to be still and spend time with God is a process, and we must give ourselves some grace to discover how to integrate this into a new rhythm of life. 

Today I consider myself a reformed “rush-aholic”. I have become much more aware when I feel an adrenaline rush, and try to step back and pause. Instead of easily giving into compulsion and driving myself to do more, I give myself permission to step away from that cliff and enjoy the moment instead. 

Are you struggling with hurry sickness? Are there some ways you’ve learned to combat the problem and slow down? Are there things you do to help you live in the moment, rather than rush through it?

Let me pray for you as you go out into your day: Dear Jesus, how easily we can seek value and significance from our accomplishments and striving. Thank you for creating our bodies to alert us when we are not taking care of ourselves in ways that give life. Help us learn to listen to those symptoms, so we will be intentional about finding moments of stillness in your presence .For those who read this blog, I pray that they can acknowledge those moments when they compulsively keep going, and learn to listen instead to your whisper of love and grace for them. Help them to discover the joys that the “moments” of life can bring if they stop, and pause, and drink of those moments deeply. Help them to discover more of you, and more of your love, in those moments of stillness. In Your Name, Amen. 

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