Typically, as I am sure many of you would agree, my schedule is pretty full. There are endless to-do lists and planners that seem to be completely filled out to the minute. It’s not too often that I feel like I have a completely free morning or afternoon. A couple weekends ago, I happened to have just a few free hours on a Friday morning. As I walked out my front door that morning, the sun seemed to be hiding, the sky looked like a large gray blanket, and a dreary mist was falling. It was a cold, gloomy day, which means one thing… it was a perfect morning to sip a warm cup of coffee with a book in my hand.
I set my things down at Starbucks, ordered my vanilla latte, and sat down to begin reading a book I had recently started titled The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. To give a brief summary of the book, Comer says the book is to help readers learn “how to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world.” Ironically enough, I had felt “too busy” that I hadn’t picked up this book in a while, so I was very eager to begin reading it on that perfect Friday morning.
I had not even read half a chapter yet when one of the Starbucks employees, we’ll call her Liz, saw me and was excited to come talk to me. I’ve known her for a few years now, and if I had to vote, Liz would hands down be the best Starbucks employee. She greets everyone with a smile, helps customers get what they need, and in the hustle, the bustle, and the hurry of the Starbucks environment, she slows down and is intentional with the customers.
Liz came right to my table, and she took the open chair that was on the other side. I was glad to see her and happy to have some small conversation, but my mind felt like it was in such a hurry because I wanted to get busy reading… reading the book about, well, not being in so much of a hurry. I was half-listening, half-reading, looking up every few sentences, nodding, then producing canned responses. I would say things like, “Oh yeah? Uh-huh. Yeah, things are good – just reaaally busy!” I wasn’t actually processing what I was reading in the book, and I wasn’t actually listening to the conversation. All because I felt like I was in a hurry.
In the midst of both trying to talk and trying to read, I read this sentence, “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.” To be very honest, I am glad Comer decided to restate that for the readers because, quite frankly, I completely missed it the first time. But it sure did grasp my attention the second time. I was fully tuned in to the rest of the words on the page as I continued reading. Comer went on to say, “Not only does hurry keep us from the love, joy, and peace of the Kingdom of God – the very core of what all human beings crave – but it also keeps us from God himself simply by stealing our attention. And with hurry, we always lose more than we gain.”
The Lord convicted my heart so clearly in that moment. I was hurrying and rushing through things as if I were in a race against myself. I had no deadlines and no place to be, so I was really racing against nothing at all. All my hurry that morning was keeping me from experiencing the love, joy, and peace of the Kingdom. I was losing out on encouragement and rich conversation from a friend. I was losing out on all the wisdom from what I was reading. And I was gaining absolutely nothing.
In that moment of deep conviction, I decided to close the book and set it aside. As I began to fully engage in the conversation, there were no more canned responses and no more feelings of urgency or rushing. Instead, I felt the love, joy, and peace of Christ throughout the rest of the intentionally slow conversation. I am grateful for this coffee shop conviction because I finally slowed down enough to see the soil that Jesus is trying to produce in my life – the soil that is incompatible with hurry.
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