1: “On a regular basis I catch myself saying, ‘I wish there were ten more hours in a day,'” John Mark Comer writes in The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Time is a problem. A limitation. A challenge.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re the CEO of a multinational corporation or a retired school bus driver, John Mark notes, “if we’re single or raising a family of seven, if we live in the wind tunnel of a global city or on a farm in the middle of Kansas without cell service or Wi-Fi.”
“But here’s the thing,” he observes, “the solution is not more time.”
Huh?
What if God were “a Robin Williams-esque genie in a bottle, there to make my every wish come true, and he were to alter the structure of the universe to give me ten more hours in a day,” John Mark imagines.
“What would I likely do with those ten hours?”
Well, he reflects, “I’d fill them up with good things, even great things.
“I’d pick up music again, master the Sonata Pathétique on piano, start a band. Read Anna Karenina. Then David Foster Wallace‘s entire library. Volunteer at my kids’ school and our church’s daily feeding program for houseless people. Practice more hospitality with neighbors. Spend more time with my kids. Become a chef—yes, definitely that. Then join CrossFit. Flat abs and tapas. Travel, especially to places where I can display said abs. Go back to school. Finally finish The West Wing (I dropped off in season 5). Write poetry.
“I’d… oh wait, I think I’ve used up my extra ten hours and then some.
“Same problem again,” John Mark writes. “Then I would be even more tired and burned out and emotionally frayed and spiritually at risk than I am now.”
2: Have you heard the expression “entertainment anxiety”?
“I love this idea,” John Mark writes. “We’re to the point now where there’s so much good TV and film and art out there to consume that whenever somebody asks me, “Have you watched ________?” I immediately feel a rush of anxiety: Oh no, seriously? Another TV show to add to my queue?
“As I said, I’m already three seasons behind on The West Wing (where was I in the late ’90s?!), and now I find out there’s some indie British show called The Night Manager that, apparently, I just have to see if I want to even stand a chance at being cool and cultured.
“There goes another twenty hours. I don’t have. Dahhh. . .
“We live in a culture that wants to transgress all limitations, not accept them—to cheat time and space,” he observes. ‘To be like God.’ To watch every new film, listen to every podcast, read every new book (and don’t forget the classics!), hear every record, go to every concert, drive every road trip, travel to every country (another stamp for the passport, please), eat at every new restaurant, party at every new bar opening, befriend every new face, fix every problem in society, rise to the top of every field, win every award, make every list of who’s who—
“#YOLO
“#FOMO
“#Imsostressedouticantbreathe.”
3: Amongst this madness, John Mark notes, there is some good news.
“Great news, in fact. You. Can’t. Do. It. All. And neither can I. We’re human,” he writes. “Time, space, one place at a time, all that pesky non-omnipresent stuff. We have limitations. Lots of them.
“Nobody has more than twenty-four hours in a day. We simply can’t see, read, watch, taste, drink, experience, be, or do it all. Not an option. Life is a series of choices. Every yes is a thousand nos. Every activity we give our time to is a thousand other activities we can’t give our time to. Because, duh: we can’t be in two places at once.
“Here’s my point,” John Mark writes, “the solution to an over-busy life is not more time. It’s to slow down and simplify our lives around what really matters.”
One skill we need? The ability to say no. Constantly.
“Every day is a chance,” he observes. “Every hour is an opportunity. Every moment a precious gift.
“How will we spend ours? Will we squander them on trivial things? Or invest them in the eternal kind of life?
“Of course, most of us want to spend our time wisely,” John Mark explains. “In the language of Henry David Thoreau, we have to ‘live deliberately.’ I just finished reading his famous memoir, Walden, about going into the woods for two full years to slow down and simplify.
“Take a look at this line: ‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.'”
Disappearing into the forest for two years, however, is likely not an option.
The question for us is: “How do we slow down, simplify, and live deliberately right in the middle of the chaos of the noisy, fast-paced, urban, digital world we call home?” John Mark writes.
His answer?
Follow Jesus.
More tomorrow!
__________________________
Reflection: Am I constantly wishing for more hours in the day, or am I courageous enough to slow down, simplify, and focus on what truly matters?
Action: Say “no” to one optional commitment this week and choose instead to invest my limited time in what brings meaning, presence, and peace.
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