The Struggle With Stillness: Why Hurry & Hustle are Robbing Us of Wonder
When’s the last time you were still?
Or took a walk around your neighborhood?
Or chose to drive in the slow lane?
Or ate a meal without looking at your phone?
I bet it’s been a while.
Most of us are living at a pace our souls can’t keep up with.
We constantly feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to possibly accomplish all we want, yet also feel overwhelmed + burnt out because we lack the rest we know we need.
If you’re like me, you find yourself trying to strategize how to pack your schedule with more so you can squeeze every ounce of productivity out of your days.
Though we may have accomplished much, we’ve got much anxiety to show for it. Despite the many gold stars we think we’ve accumulated, we’ve likely lacked in love for those around us, have diminished patience, and our joy is on 0%.
We’re living every moment with this hum of hurry, this nagging tyrant of worry that slowing down and being present is going to cause us to miss out on something good + important.
We’ve bought into this lie that where we are and the life that’s happening right in front of us is just a stepping stone to get to the “good stuff.” The better days are somewhere out there, not the ones we wake to every morning.
So slowness becomes annoying.
Stillness? A struggle.
Quiet and solitude? A boring snooze fest.
I didn’t come to realize my soul’s toxic tango with hurry until I became a mother.
The sprint-like pace I was accustomed to living at just wasn’t what these stroller-bound, short-legged wanderers were able or willing to follow.
The more my kids have resisted my rushing, the more God has confronted the roots of fear attached to my drive and ambition.
My tendencies to hurry & hustle expose the hidden lies in my heart: that I’m not enough to God, and that I must strive to earn my significance for him to love me.
But the more I fix my gaze upon Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection, the more I remember he accomplished all I could not, the more I remember his work for me is a finished one that completely satisfies the Father’s heart, the more rest I have found.
Tune in to our discussion + prayer session about overcoming striving with stillness.
Today’s Meditation
Psalm 46 + Psalm 91
As you read + meditate on today’s verses I want you to ask yourself:
Take inventory of your life. Do you prioritize stillness, slowness and/or silence? Why or why not?
How has living at a fast pace impacted your emotions? Your relationship with God? Your relationships with others?
What are the things you often feel you have to do that are hard to put down?
How does our hurry & hustle reveal how we see ourselves?
How does our stillness reveal how we see God?
According to these scriptures, what are the promises God makes to those who rest and trust in him?
How can you be more intentional about being still + present with God in your daily rhythms?
We don’t have to keep living on the hamster wheel of hurry, or bound to the societal algorithms of hustle.
The way of Jesus is the better way. No, it’s not always easier. But he offers the best and only remedy for our stress, exhaustion and sin.
Because of Jesus, rest is our inheritance.
It’s not a privilege, but a right.
When we heed God’s command to be still, we find the exhale our hearts have been waiting for as we behold his might that holds all things together.
When we acknowledge that he is God, we remember we are not.
We can rest well when we remember who he is, who we are, and that his love for us has nothing to do with what we can produce for him.
Missed out on a Bible meditation from this fast? Catch up below!
When we empty ourselves upon God, we can be filled to the full with life.