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The Hurried Pace of Life (Part 2)

The Hurried Pace of Life (Part 2)

JANUARY 17, 2023  |  5 MINUTE LISTEN
HOST: CONNOR OWEN


Listen on Spotify, Apple, and Google


Episode Overview

Is our hurried nature causing us to miss the people around us? If so, how can we change the posture of our hearts so that we begin to see others and recognize their needs?

On this episode of The Approach, we’re going to invite God to show us some ways that we are keeping ourselves busy and how we can make more room for Him. We’ll also think about the people He has placed in our lives and how we can pray for them.  

Show Notes
Read the Transcript

Welcome to The Approach. This is one of our prayer habit episodes where we pause our normal rhythm and pray over our topic for the month. My name is Connor Owen, and I am on staff at World Gospel Mission.

Earlier this month we talked about the hurried pace of life in which many of us find ourselves. And this hurried pace is something that has become the norm for Gen Z. As John shared, there are three enemies of abiding—hurry, worry, and distraction. For more of a breakdown on those, I’d encourage you to listen to The Hurried Pace of Life Part 1.

For today, though, we’re going to focus on praying over the topic of hurry.

One stat I was just reading made me realize that our days often begin with hurry. A survey of 7,000 people, ages eighteen to forty-four showed that 80 percent of this group check their phone within fifteen minutes of waking up. From the moment our eyes open, we are checking emails for work, comparing ourselves to others on social media, and thinking about all the meetings we have on our calendar. 

As John and I were talking about this topic of being hurried, we realized that one of the outcomes of being hurried is a self-centered posture. Another negative outcome is that we run out of gas. We’re finding ourselves halfway through the day with nothing left to give. 

So, knowing that your life probably looks similar to mine with all the things you’re juggling—full plates, meetings to attend, deadlines to hit, and kids to run here and there—let’s pause. And let’s pray. 

Psalm 46:10 will guide our prayer today. I’m going to say a line and give you space to repeat that line. And we’re going to do this a few times.

“Be still, and know that I am God.”

“Be still, and know.”

“Be still.”

“Be.”

As we talk about hurried lives, we’re talking about pace. In his book, Three Mile an Hour God, Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama writes that the average pace of a human walking is three miles an hour. Additionally, New Testament scholar, N.T. Wright suggests, “It is only when we slow down our lives that we can catch up to God.”

It is when we slow down that we catch up to God. It seems so counterintuitive.

But maybe Wright and Koyama are onto something. If running faster, harder, and longer only leads to an empty tank and a self-centered heart, isn’t there a better solution?

As usual, we find that better way inside of Jesus. When He lived out His ministry on earth, we saw Him walking from town to town; bringing the foreigner, the outcast, and a diverse group of people into one unified body; and we see Jesus constantly pulling away from the crowd to be with the Father. Jesus accomplished a lot on earth. But Jesus wasn’t hurried.

I would argue the thing causing us to be hurried is not that we have too much going on—it’s the posture of our hearts. We begin our days with email, social media, texting, and the like. So our hearts are being shaped by the frenetic pace of all these distractions. Instead, what if we began our day with the Father, just as Jesus did? How might that change our hurried nature? 

I want to invite you pray for a moment. During this time, ask God to reveal what is distracting you from prayer.

One of the Hebrew words used for prayer in the Old Testament literally means to interpose and intercede for. It is standing between God and a person or a people group, and pleading their case to God.

What if that’s how we began our days? What if our first morning routine was to pray for those around us and the day we are stepping into? Could this make us more self-forgetful? More Christlike? Closer with God? Could this create in us hearts that are unhurried, and shaped outward, not inward, and hearts that walk with God and others?   

I’d like to encourage you to think about the Gen Zers God has placed in your life. Maybe take a note of two or three Gen Zers God wants you to pray for. I believe as we pray for others, we will see not only their lives begin to look more like Christ’s, but also, our lives wil become less hurried and more intentional in how we interact with those around us. Take time to ask God who it is He wants you to intercede for.

As we walk with God at His pace and pray for those around us, I believe we will begin to see others around us. We’ll still be in the meetings; we’ll still be helping our kids; but because of prayer, the Spirit will lead us to those who are needing our attention…those we may otherwise miss because of our hurried nature.

And we see this in a story from Jesus’ ministry.

One day, Jesus was walking toward a home He was called to. A mother and father begged Him to come heal their 12-year-old daughter who was sick. Needless to say, this was an important task for Jesus to accomplish. As was common, crowds began to gather around Jesus and the disciples as they were walking. Picture a celebrity navigating their way through a red-carpet event to get inside a building. As people are bumping up against Him and asking Him questions and yelling His name, He paused. He asked,

“Who touched me?”

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me” (Luke 8:45-46 NLT). 

We learn in Luke 8 that a woman who was suffering from bleeding for years reached out to touch Jesus, and when she did, her bleeding instantly stopped. With crowds all around Him, people bumping into Him, and on His way to heal a dying little girl, Jesus didn’t miss the woman right in front of Him…because he wasn’t in a hurry. He was able to heal this woman and the young girl.

I know you have a lot going on. I know a lot of people depend on you every day. But I wonder, if we walk as Jesus walked, if we pray as Jesus prayed, could we become an unhurried people who are focused on God and all those He brings in our path, whether we planned it or not.

Thank you to all our listeners for joining us today on another episode of The Approach, a podcast where we pray for and walk with the next generation as they seek to use their gifts, talents, and experiences to journey with Jesus and participate in the Great Commission. 

We’d love to encourage you to begin inviting your friends to join in this movement! We believe God is stirring in the hearts of each generation, and as we seek to walk with and pray for the next generation, it will require more and more mentors, coaches, teachers, and parents to do this work. So, share this with someone who would love to come on this journey with us! And be sure to subscribe or follow and give us a rating on your podcast platform, as this helps others find the podcast. For some of our resources be sure to check out our show notes on our website at wgm.org/podcast.
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