spark_of_faith__ep23_feb13_elimination_hurry

Fri, 2/18 3:16PM • 16:42

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

book, life, busyness, distract, distractions, hurry, spend, phone, called, people, slow, hours, busy, hurried, long, talk, anxiety, world, netflix, binging

00:00

Welcome to spark of faith. This is your host, Kristin Fitch each day on the show, I'll be bringing you words of encouragement and stories that are inspiring and will lift you up and provide you with hope to go into your day and just feel a little lighter, a little more hopeful. And on occasion, we'll bring on guests and talk about great and important topics about gathering together and fellowship and faith, and how we can just be more beautiful, loving humans. Here we go. Let's get started. Welcome back, beautiful friends. This is Kristin, your host, I actually just started a book by John Mark comer. He is a pastor. He was in Portland, I think he's still nearby there called the ruthless elimination of hurry. And it came out in 2019. But I had not read it yet. So I want to talk about and I've actually just started it, but this still kind of lit a fire under me and I wanted to come on and talk about it with you today. So we're gonna talk about hurry, and distraction. And why it's so important is because so many of us don't realize that I this, this level of busyness this hurry. This low or high level anxiety, it's just kind of buzzing daily. In every hour of our lives, at least for a lot of us. It's really taking away so many of the things that God's told us, we can experience in life. So that's what I want to talk about today. So first, I want to share with you a quote from Bob Gough in his new book that's coming out soon called undistracted. He says, What constantly distracts us will eventually define us. And that is a lot about what this book that John Mark comer, or pastor comer talks about. And you know, it's that basically, when we are in a state of hurry, we can't to be fully present, to love people to love on others. And we can't be fully present to really experience everything that, you know, being a Christ follower allows for us to have. And so his books about how he went from having a bit of a very overly busy hurried, and a little bit distracted life as a pastor, you know, working hard as a pastor having a family being a husband, but how much he was constantly on the go, and just how exhausting that was. And then his exploration into that, and then what the Bible says about it, and then how he made changes and choices in his life, to slow down to live differently. So we're only going to touch on this today. But I think it's such a great topic. And I think it's important for us to regularly kind of assess what our life and our different areas of our lives look like, you know, so in our relationship, how's it going? Is it going well? Could we improve certain things? How's it going in our health? You know, in areas of our health? How's it going in our work life? Are we working too much? Or too long of hours? Or never taking a break? How does it look? You know, with the, what we're spending time on, you know, are we growing and learning? are we developing? Are we finding time to, you know, pray and listen to God and to get into Scripture? Or are we too busy that those are the first types of things to go? Or are we so busy that we don't reflect on? You know, how's this last week or month gone with? The things I say are important and the type of life I believe I want to live but maybe I'm not. So here are a few things I want to share with you.

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The first is that in lots of parts of the world, but definitely in the US. There has been this glamorization of dizziness of hurry, you know, and honestly, I've talked to so many of my friends we text or on the phone or in person. And often there's too much frazzling or rush rush rushing to the point where you can see the anxiety, physical anxiety coming out of them. But it's because instead of making hard choices in the heart versus being we're going to cut some things out or we're going to take a break and do nothing, even not respond sometimes right to people as long as they never stay fit. Okay. But first of all, it's that that it's this glamorization, of busy, and it's glamorization of, of just fitting in too many things. Those things could be work related. It could be too many fun things. It could be too many things that just distract us like too much Netflix binging or, you know, just whatever the thing might be. So that's the first thing is we we should try to pause and think about are we allowing this cultural definition of success, heart or hurt our lives? In other words, why do we think that busyness should be a badge of honor, when really it just makes us not be able to enjoy the relationships around us and the fruits that We we've been given. So that's the first thing like, let's just pause more regularly and assess, how's the day going? And how do I feel. And if we feel overwhelmed, if we feel anxious, if we feel like we're rushing all the time to the point that it's, you know, it's causing stress, it's causing us to snap at people, whatever it might be, it might be time, just start being more

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particular or more strict on what we allow in for the day and saying no more so that we can have space for the quiet space for slowing down space to heal our bodies and to nourish our bodies and to nourish our relationships with the people we love and with God. So that's, that's the first thing I want to mention. The next is in John Mark commerce book, he talks about, you know, basically, all of us at this point, are addicted a lot of us to a digital device. And, you know, but it could be other things. But most of the things are all distractions, it could even be we're, you know, and I'm guilty of a lot of these things myself, I might have days that I do better, but I have days where I don't, or hours that I on my phone too much. Or in the evening, we might watch Netflix or whatnot. Of course, I'll read and do other things. But so anyways, what he's what he says though, in the book is basically about this, you know, most of us have addiction. And he says, if you think you're he says everyone has that he says if you think you're an exception to the rule, great, prove it, how turn off your phone for 24 hours straight, just one day, called a digital Sabbath. See if you can make it that long without giving into the edge to pick up, pick your phone back up with outrage, or icing on the floor and a cold sweat with your teeth chattering for from a neurobiological withdraw. So and and then basically says you're not saying that we shouldn't have these digital devices for our maps and our music and all these things. He's just explaining that, too often, we don't realize that these things that we say our digital progress, often can distract us and really create this, this drip addiction in us. But one of the reasons is because they're actually designed to get our attention as long as possible, because that's how they make more money, right, these companies and these apps and things. So I just think it's really interesting. And I think if we slow down long enough to realize that we can start to realize maybe the role they play in our lives, and how maybe we could slowly make shifts to improve how much we are distracting ourselves with these, these devices. And I think in his book he mentions, it's something like the average person touches their phone like 2617 times. And I think they stay in in a year, a lot of people watching that Flick, flick over 700 hours. The point being is we say we're so busy, but yet, we indulge in these things that if we actually pulled back a little bit, we could actually spend that time slowing down, we could spend that time reading, reflecting, reading the Bible's you know, having deeper conversations with people we care about, maybe getting the other things done so that we actually, you know, can slow down. But I just think a lot of times we get so used to using these devices, we don't realize that instead of being a device and a tool that we use when we need them, we get used to not liking quiet, we get used to not liking the not having something to do. And so by default, if you notice when you're when you're doing nothing, you could even call that board. You I don't know about you, but this happens to me and I know it happens to my kids. What do we do? Even if you're waiting a doctor's office, maybe indicate in some cases you brought a book and you're reading or there's a magazine, but I doubt that any more there is because of all the things that have happened in the world there's those have kind of gone out the wayside in public places. But what happens is, we we get uncomfortable with just being there with nothing to do nothing to entertain us if you will or distract us. We pick up our phones, we start checking if we got email in we go on social did we get a like we'd go on social what's going on with people. But we don't even like sitting in our own thoughts in our own quiet. We'd rather find something to do with our hand and it's usually our phone because it's so close to us. And here is a passage of scripture that I think really speaks to how we are meant to live. Okay, in Matthew 1128 through 30 It says, Come to me all you who are weary and burdened. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light

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But you know, we weren't really meant to live in this hurried lifestyle, we were meant to have time for rest and recovery and time for processing and time for connection with our souls and with God. And often we're so hurried and busy and distracted. We don't even have time for that to happen. And so I think this was just such a interesting and important topic that we all for the most part struggle with. And, you know, he, in John's book, he basically goes on to say, Do you ever catch yourself with a sneaking suspicion that you'll wake up on your deathbed with this nagging sense that somehow In all the hurry and busyness and frenetic activity, you missed the most important things. And then he gives a couple examples. Somehow he started a business but ended a marriage. You got your kids to their dream colleges, but never taught them the way of Jesus. You got letters after your name, but learned the hard way that intelligence is not the same as wisdom, made a lot of money but never grew rich and the things that matter most, which ironically, aren't things at all. You watched all 14 seasons of blank but never learned to love prayer. And then he says, this is a terrifying aspect of the conversation for me. Most of us waste copious amounts of time, myself included. For all the talk about Hurrian overload, most of it is self inflicted. And then he says, Philip Zimbardo has recent research on the demise of guys, I eat the crisis of masculinity in Western culture has been concluded the average guy spends 10,000 hours playing video games by the age of 21 10,000 hour hours. And then John goes on to say my mind jumps to the research around this role in 10,000 hours, you could master any craft or become an expert in any field, from Sumerian archaeology to Olympic waterpolo. You could get your bachelor's degree and your master's degree, you could memorize the New Testament, or you could beat level four of Call of Duty. Hmm. And then he then he goes on to say, and how we spend our time is how we spend our lives. It's who we become or don't. And I don't know about you, but I definitely, you know, have the struggle with one or more of our sons, where their default of entertainment is the Xbox. And as I mentioned that number earlier of Netflix, so many of us kids, teens, or teens and adults. We are Netflix binging maybe not every night, some some every night. We're spending hundreds of hours or more a year doing that. And look, I am just as guilty. And by guilt, I'm not saying we should feel bad, it's if we really truly know what matters to us. And if we truly know what we want for our lives, we need to weigh those things against how much time we spend on things that aren't helping us grow or stretch or impact the world or impact our own lives. And so this conversation isn't about trying to feel guilty. It's just, it's an invitation to say, what is distracting us? What is causing our anxiety, our rushing our busyness. And where can we make different choices. So that we can actually live the life that if we really quiet down and we close our eyes, we would love to live? What does that look like for you. But if it looks like that you could finish a degree or it looks like you want to read more books every year or or listen to more podcasts. Maybe you want to get through the Bible this year, or in the next couple of months. Maybe you want to take a trip. But the question is, if you're not moving towards those things, what can you stop doing that will help you get there? Because as they say, a goal without a deadline is just a

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race. It's a is it a dream, they say? But in other words, we're not going to accomplish it if we don't put you know, pen to paper and have some actual requirements around. What do we want to filter out? How often do we really want to spend each week watching Netflix or sitting on our phone when we could be doing something deeper enriching, richer and more meaningful? So that's the challenge the invitation to all of us. It's how do we create a environment where we're always checking in with ourselves, we're checking in with what our days look like how we've scheduled them, so that we can, as he talks about in the book, have this ruthless elimination of hurry so that we can redesign our lives for how we want them to feel and look, and so that we're spending time on the things that we say are the most important in our in our life, you know, or in our lifetime. So I would just leave you with this idea. How can we find time in our day in our week to get quiet to remove the distractions of the television and our smartphones? The noise of the news the noise of hustle and bustle and other things so that we can really hear our own thoughts that we really can commune with God and really have time to reset into connect and slow down and have this kind of restful spirits that I think most of us are longing for today. So that's what I would ask you. And I think part of that comes from quiet and slowing down. It also comes from reflection, and then nor regularly assessing what we the life we want with what it is we're currently how we're living. And I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear how are you? Assessing? We know what your life and your days and your schedule looks like? And how are you eliminating things that are distractions or, or are causing more busyness or anxiety in your life than you want? I would love to hear how you're tackling this in for most of us it's an ongoing thing. But you know, I think we have to look you know at our daily lives in order to make changes or slight adjustments. Have a great day. Until next time. Thanks again for listening to spark a faith. If you enjoyed the show, we would love it if you would share it with a friend. And if you would leave us a rating and review on Apple podcast because it helps us get discovered by more people to spread more hope in the world. So thanks again and we send a weekly little encouragement email as well just go to spark a faith.com and enter your email address. We would love to encourage you in your inbox as well.