The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world

by John Mark Comer

“All my worst moments … are when I’m in a hurry.” “Love, joy, and peace … are incompatible with hurry.” “The average iPhone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times a day.” (By way of contrast, the psalmist said, “I have set the LORD always before me” [Psalm 16v8, ESV]. What would my life be like if God touched my mind as frequently as I touch my phone?) Freedom perhaps never comes without great cost. And John Mark is someone who has made choices that involved a price, to pursue the life that is beyond price.

To restate: love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life. And all three are incompatible with hurry.

In Luke, Jesus went to his quiet place no less than nine times. Just one more story; then I’ll stop. I promise. This one is from Luke 5: The news about [Jesus] spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. Crowds banging down Jesus’ front door was a regular thing. But look at the next line: Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.15 In