Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Life You've Always Wanted: John Ortberg

The phrase below, to be honest, has haunted me for many years since I first read it several years ago in Ortberg's book...Even as I sit here typing I have just come off a week where I could barely afford to walk places due to the intensity of my schedule...and after that major event was finished, I am now struggling to figure out how I can possibly take time away because I have to catch up on what was missed when I was hosting this other big event...everyone knows when I am too hurried...my wife, my kids, my colleagues, my students...and I must remember that a skim mile life carries little of the power for love and influence and impact that the full whole milk life carries when I am living without being too rushed...

"You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life."

Imagine for a moment that someone gave you this prescription, with the warning that your life depends on it. Consider the possibility that perhaps your life does depend on it. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. Hurry can destroy our souls. Hurry can keep us from living well. As Carl Jung wrote, "Hurry is not of the devil; hurry is the devil."

Again and again, as we pursue spiritual life, we must do battle with hurry. For many of us the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

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