FAST FROM ELECTRONICS
Today is a fast from electronics from sunrise to 6:00 pm. Break your dependence and build your stamina by stretching your technology fast until mid-afternoon.
Day 20 | Saturday | HURRY
The rhythm of modern life bullies us into hurry. When the obligations of work, family, and church quickly fill our schedules, hurry holds the promise that we can squeeze more in.
For most of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so busy and distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.
—John Ortberg
There is nothing more important for soul care than eliminating hurry. Hurry is the enemy of spiritual life, consuming, impairing, and shattering souls.
Christian author Dallas Willard implores us: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
Exercise
Take a long, slow walk today in nature (no cell phones, no watches), without trying to get anywhere. Slow down. Repeat: SLOW DOWN. Let your senses guide your walk. If you are drawn to a leaf, a stone, a color, a hole in the concrete, the fragrance of a flower, simply stop and linger, and allow the moment to be, to smell, touch, hear, and thoroughly observe whatever is available for you. DO NOT HURRY. Take all the time you need to take it in. Then when the rhythm of being there gives way to the rhythm of moving along, simply move on. Follow your own timing and curiosity.
When you’re done, reflect, and remember what this rhythm feels like as an inner place to come back to again and again during the coming days.