Hurry is What Rips 1 Corinthians 13 out of the Bible
We can’t love like Jesus loved when we’re always in a hurry
It is impossible to love people when you’re always in a hurry.
I think it is worth repeating that line out loud and taking a moment to let it sink in.
Hurry is what rips 1 Corinthians 13 out of the Bible. — Jan Johnson
I’ll never forget the first time I heard Jan Johnson say those words. It stopped me in my tracks. She’s right, I thought. How can we love others — or love them well in the manner and likeness of Jesus — when we are rushing through life too busy to pay attention? I mean really pay attention.
Oh yes, we convince ourselves that our rushing, our busyness is righteous — we’re working for God, after all. But, it is the hallmark of mature love to pay attention along the way from here to there.
At every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur. — Ann Voskamp
Jesus often had a destination, a basic agenda: let’s go to Samaria, for example. But that never put Him into hurry mode. He was keenly alert to the people He met along the way — even those who didn’t want to be noticed: the woman who groveled in the dirt to touch His cloak, the little tax collector who climbed a tree to see over the crowd.
Jesus noticed people
Despite His calling, His purpose, and His ministry plans, He was not rushed and hurried, never too busy to notice what the Spirit wanted Him to see. He understood that the destination may be Samaria, Jerusalem, or the cross, but the important work was also in the journey. He never set His own agenda. He set off in the direction the Father pointed and then let the Spirit direct Him from there.
I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away. — Unknown pastor, quoted in One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
Similarly, God directs us.
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.(Isaiah 30:21, ESV)
It’s in the going that we learn what work God has for us
The handicapped teenager on the bus might be our ministry work for the day. The grieving widow sitting beside you on the plane might be the purpose of your cross-country trip. It’s easy to overlook these opportunities when we pre-determine what God’s work is for us. Pride and rushing sometimes cause us to miss the real purpose of our going forth.
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts 8:26–31, ESV)
Notice the destination wasn’t Gaza. Philip didn’t need to go to Gaza to find what the Lord wanted him to do that day. All he needed to do was start out in that direction and then pay attention. What if Philip had thought that God had a big ministry event for him in Gaza and had been so transfixed on the destination that he missed the turn-off when God told him to pay attention?
If all our work for God causes us to rush about and adopt an attitude of hurried and harried, you can be sure God isn’t advocating for that kind of work.
Unnatural, frantic, anxious work, work done under the pressure of greed or fear or any other inordinate passion, cannot, properly speaking, be dedicated to God, because God never wills such work directly. — Thomas Merton
- Check your attitude of busyness! Does it prevent you from paying attention? From really listening to the heart of the person to talking to you?
- Are you so hurried that you avoid conversation with strangers or co-workers because you can’t dedicate the mental space needed to really listen to them?
- Do you tell yourself you’ll check in “later” with friends and family members who come to mind?
- Is your prayer list just another To-Do list that never gets done?
If we want to love as Jesus loved we need to commit to an unhurried attitude. After all, nobody likes the person who always says “I’m so busy!”
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