Hurry

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I grew up with hurry.

Hurry up, we’ll be late for church (and, of course, we were).

Hurry up, they’ll be here any minute.

Hurry, you’ll be late for school.

Hurry up, the bus is here.

Hurry up, and eat. We have to leave now.

It seemed as if my life consisted of long periods of lazy, do-what-you-want rest interrupted by short bursts of intense and guilt-ridden rushing.

There was no in-between.

And I had no control over it whatsoever.

There’s not much wrong with hurry, I suppose. Everybody has to do it once in a while. But it stresses me out. It creates drama, hard feelings, and hurtful words. People drop things, trip, bump into each other, forget tasks, make mistakes.

Hurry makes the brain streamline things. Hurry makes my brain all in a jumble.

Hence, why I have tried to make my life an even walk, moving forward, resting only when necessary, planning for the day ahead, week ahead, months ahead.

I have created routines to make sure I remember to do just about everything I need to do, so that when emergencies come, I’m hopefully not drowning in responsibilities.

If I must hurry, or if something unexpected comes up, I am automatically in battle mode. I try to keep calm, but my childhood is strong inside of me. While calm on the outside, the little girl is standing in the middle of the living room waiting for whoever is in charge to tell me what to do.

Or worse, hiding in a closet waiting for it all to end.

I suppose hurry will always be my enemy. I’m grateful God is with me to direct my path when life gets complicated.

With God, even hurry can be calm.

“Do not let your heart be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me …” (John 14:1) Jesus said these words right before telling the disciples He was going to get their rooms ready up in heaven. Throughout His life here on earth, I don’t think Jesus hurried. I’m sure he must have felt rushed from time to time, but never intensely guilt-ridden rushed working or sharp words spoken. Thank You, Jesus!

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By the way, there's even a thing called "Hurry Sickness".

Check it out here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/signs-of-hurry-sickness-how-to-deal_l_6081d78de4b0dff254039874

This article contains lots of links to studies so you can totally go down a rabbit hole if you've never heard of hurry sickness before... You're welcome. :)

_RHTM_