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

by John Mark Comer

We sleep in Saturday morning. Drink coffee. Read our Bibles. Pray more. Spend time together. Talk. Laugh. In summer, walk to the park. In winter, make a fire. Get lost in good novels on the couch. Cuddle. Nap. (The Jews even have a name for the Sabbath nap—the Shabbat shluf! We shluf hard on Sabbath.) Make love. Honestly, I spend a lot of time just sitting by the window, being. It’s like a less stressful Christmas every week. And something happens about halfway through the day, something hard to put language to. It’s like my soul catches up to my body. Like some deep part of me that got beat up and drowned out by meetings and email and Twitter and relational conflict and the difficulty of life comes back to the surface of my heart. I feel free. Free from the need to do more, get more, be more. Free from the spirit—the evil, demonic spirit—of restlessness that enslaves our society. I feel another spirit, the Holy Spirit, of restful calm settle over my whole person. And I find that my ordinary life is enough. And on Saturday evening when I turn my phone back on and reenter the modern world, I do so slowly. And, wow, does that ever feel good.