What’s Your Hurry?

Oct 16, 2013 by Jim and Jerolyn Bogear

I believe my lesson for today has been to slow down. God seems to keep putting into my path people and things that require me to put on the brakes.

At work I had to print and assemble invitations to an event. If you want plenty of time to think, hand-feed invitations one-by-one into a printer then stuff each one into an envelope and seal them. I think I solved the problem of the government shutdown while standing there.

When I left work, I got stuck behind a car with two people who seemed to relish touring the parking lot and were in absolutely no hurry to leave. I “patiently” crept along at about 3 mph until I finally hit the street.

Then it was the grocery store. At the check out the woman in front of me sent the bagger to get her a couple of items. I waited. She finished paying, then I finished checking out my few items, and I still became trapped behind her and her walker trying to leave the store.

This theme of my day, slow down and wait, is something we all need to be reminded of every once in a while. Our lives are moving so fast. We have fast cars, fast Internet, and fast drivethru’s. We carry little computers (smart phones or tablets) around with us all day so we can have fast access to everyone in our life or anyone who has ever been in our life. We seem to need fast access to email, messages, Facebook, Twitter, and the entire world wide web. We have our favorite shows recorded so we can watch them faster by speeding through the commercials. We even eat fast food while speeding from one appointment to another. It’s a wonder our heads aren’t spinning off of our necks for all the quick turns and stops and starts our life takes every day.

So why do we need to stop?  Because relationships cannot happen on the run. They take time, thought, and intentionality.

Yesterday, I went immediately from work to a meeting with Jim at a local restaurant. As we were sitting there working, a former teacher of our daughter walked in. Jim waved at him, and he got his coffee and came over and sat down with us. We ended up having a lovely conversation about life and got to know Bill a little better. If we hadn’t taken the time to pause in what we were doing, we would have missed that relationship-building time.

How many relationships do we need to slow down for?

• With God
• With our spouse
• With our children
• With our family
• With our friends
• With our co-workers
• With our neighbors
• With our brothers and sisters in Christ
• The list goes on and on.

Slow down and take the time to be there for them. Your relationships will deepen and become so much richer.

Which of your relationships will you choose to slow down for today?

~Jerolyn