The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World

by John Mark Comer

Let them talk; I have new metrics now.

The problem isn’t when you have a lot to do; it’s when you have too much to do and the only way to keep the quota up is to hurry.

As my grandma used to say, “Just because everybody’s doing it, don’t make it smart.”

Worship and joy start with the capacity to turn our minds’ attention toward the God who is always with us in the now.

Because what you give your attention to is the person you become.

But not for those who give their attention to the 24-7 news cycle of outrage and anxiety and emotion-charged drama or the nonstop feed of celebrity gossip, titillation, and cultural drivel. (As if we “give” it in the first place; much of it is stolen by a clever algorithm out to monetize our precious attention.)

I mean, how do we have any kind of spiritual life at all if we can’t pay attention longer than a goldfish? How do you pray, read the Scriptures, sit under a teaching at church, or rest well on the Sabbath when every chance you get, you reach for the dopamine dispenser that is your phone?

As easy as it is to blame the devil, could it be that we’re using external noise to drown out internal noise?

Called out.