It happens every morning like clock work. “Hurry! Eat your breakfast. We have to be in the car in 3 minutes. We’re going to be late for school.” It’s like I forget school starts every morning at 8a.m. My poor children! Part of the problem is the distraction.
In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer cites a study that says the average I-phone user touches their phone 2,617 times a day. It’s on the verge of addiction. He continues,
“There’s a Silicon Valley insider named Tristan Harris doing some really interesting work right now. Labeled by the Atlantic as ‘the closest thing Silicon Valley has to a conscience,” he points out that slot machines make more money than the film industry and baseball combined, even though they take only a few quarters at a time. Because the slot machine is addictive. And those small amounts of money feel inconsequential in the moment. It’s just a few quarters, right? Or give bucks, or twenty. But over time they add up. In the same way, the phone is addictive. And small moments–a text here, the phone is addictive. And small moments–a text here, a scroll through Instagram there, a quick email scan, drinking around online–it all adds up to an extraordinary amount of time.”
It was a gut punch for me as I started to do the math of how often I touch my phone each minute. Therefore, I’m going to keep my blog short and sweet. It’s getting late in the afternoon and the weather is unseasonable warm and I have two kids to pick up from school.
A scripture that comes to mind is from John 11. Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus has died. They send for Jesus to help. John points out that Jesus waits around two extra days before he makes his journey to Lazarus. Why was Jesus not in a hurry? Martha points out to Jesus that had he been there on time, Lazarus may have lived. In savior-like fashion, Jesus calls into the tombs and says, “Lazaraus, come out.” And Lazarus comes out of the tombs and lives again.
Jesus teaches us that he’s on God’s time. He is not rushed by death or our deadlines. He is the resurrection and life. In a world of constant hurry, efficiency and distraction, perhaps the great challenge is to get on God’s time. How might we all work to eliminate hurry in our households? In fact, I think it would be a good experiment to rid ourselves of that word for one day and see what happens.
Will Zant 