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

by John Mark Comer

Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect—they cut off your connection to God, to other people, and even to your own soul.

The poet Mary Oliver, not a Christian but a lifelong spiritual seeker, wrote something similar: “Attention is the beginning of devotion.”11 Worship and joy start with the capacity to turn our minds’ attention toward the God who is always with us in the now. As apprentices of Jesus, this is our main task and the locus of the devil’s stratagem against us.

So many people live without a sense of God’s presence through the day. We talk about his absence as if it’s this great question of theodicy. And I get that: I’ve been through the dark night of the soul. But could it be that, with a few said exceptions, we’re the ones who are absent, not God?

If you want to experience the life of Jesus, you have to adopt the lifestyle of Jesus.

The reality is, I want the life, but I’m not willing to adopt the lifestyle behind it. I think that’s how a lot of us feel about Jesus.

And this story isn’t a one-off, outlier, or enigma. Jesus was constantly interrupted—read the Gospels; half the stories are interruptions!—yet he never comes off as agitated or annoyed.

How would Jesus live if he were me?

Most of us have more than enough time to work with, even in busy seasons of life. We just have to reallocate our time to “seek first the kingdom of God,”7 not the kingdom of entertainment.

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?

In Luke’s gospel in particular, you can chart Jesus’ life along two axis points: the busier and more in demand and famous Jesus became, and the more he withdrew to his quiet place to pray.

In seasons of busyness we need more time in the quiet place, not less, definitely not less. And if you’re running through your Rolodex of excuses right now—I’m a full-time mom, I have a demanding job that starts early, I’m an extrovert, I have ADHD, etc.—stop for a minute. Think about this: Jesus needed time in the quiet place.

We face the good, the bad, and the ugly in our own hearts. Our worry. Our depression. Our hope. Our desire for God; our lack of desire for God. Our sense of God’s presence; our sense of his absence. Our fantasies; our realities. All the lies we believe; the truth we come home to. Our motivations. Our addictions. The coping mechanisms we reach for just to make it through the week. All this is exposed and painfully so. But rather than leaking out on those we love most, it’s exposed in the safe place of the Father’s love and voice.