The Art Form of Unhurried Living

{Links are provided at the end of your reading.}

The unhurried life is a lot like jazz... it's good when you improvise.

The Unhurried Art Form

Every art form requires the utmost patience and practice. Practicing the unhurried life is no different. You can be busy and have an adventurous life without succumbing to a hurried lifestyle.

The Hurry Disconnection

How do you identify hurry in your life? Hurry is not a symptom of busyness — Jesus was busy and unstoppable. But His busyness never amounted to hurry (an inner frenzy or angst).

He was not only connected to His purposeful mission, He was connected to the Father's delight and love.

The problem with hurry is it's not the problem, rather, it's a symptom of a much bigger issue, a disconnection. Yet, connection is what you and I are designed for, and it's what we already have in Jesus. So what's the disconnect?

2 Peter 1:1-11 sheds light to my heart whenever I need to be reminded about living my unhurried life, especially verse 9... nearsightedness, blindness, forgetful. Spiritual eyesight gets compromised and the mind gets stuck in a fog of forgetfulness.

Our memory needs to be regularly refreshed. It's one step at a time, one decision at a time.

Unhurried activates faith...

Trust Abba's goodness despite failures and frailties. Grace for yourself and others. Hurried activates fear... Shamed by vulnerability. Impatience with yourself and others.

The decision to unhurriedly care for your soul is one of the best ways to honor and nurture the irreversible life connection you have in the Beloved.

Guarding your soul care is a gradual development and it opens you up to enjoy the connection with God, yourself and others.

An Unhurried Appraisal

Join me as we pursue taking a personal inventory over the course of the summer in this area of the unhurried life. This Sabbath, we'll focus on two questions (next weekend we'll look at two more).

Think of these questions as an inner being X-ray (sorta speak), not a pass or fail test. The aim is to ask questions that get to the heart of the matter to improve your spiritual vision. I like how Pico Iyer puts it, "To have more attentive, more appreciative eyes to sift through matters of life."

1. What are the common sources of hurry pressures (either real or perceived) that you experience regularly?

2. What ongoing choices can and will you make that will provide permission, space and time to allow you to notice, acknowledge and guard your soul's vitality?

Ponder your responses for a moment. Do you recognize a theme? Anything surprising to you?

Notice the need(s) your responses have revealed. Acknowledge where you are on your journey.

Guard your soul without putting up a barbed wire around it (Use the SOULutions Worksheet to guide you through the questions using 2 Peter 1:1-11).

Unhurried Living 2 Peter One Soul Care Worksheet

Remember, new rhythms zig and zag; they tend to work best when we stick with a singular focus. So think in terms of recognizing + welcoming the Spirit of Truth into the steady unfolding and development of your unhurried inner life.