Caught Speeding

Slow down. Take a deep breath. What’s the hurry?  Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway?  But you say, ‘I can’t help it.  I’m addicted to alien gods. I can’t quit.  Jeremiah 2:25 (The Message)

It is so easy to get swept up in the modern day pace of life.  It is frenzied, wake up in the morning already feeling being, constantly on the go, make sure every available space in our calendar is filled... but ever wonder, "Why"?  Why have we accepted this as the meta-narrative of our life?   We live in the midst of a paradox involving choice.  There are so many options out there.  Look at the cereal aisle in your store, how many do we really need?  And we end up often with analysis paralysis.  We can't decide, so we need up filling our lives, every second, until we fall exhausted into bed.  Only to get up and repeat the cycle the next day.  

Jeremiah was a prophet during the exile, when the People of God in Israel were conquered and forced to live in a foreign land.  Their temple was destroyed, smoldering in ash.  Jeremiah asks a question that echoes over the centuries, "Why?"  Why live this way.  The people say, "I can't help it.  I am addicted to alien gods."  That might just be one verse of Scripture that little comment by me.  We are addicted to alien gods of consumerism, spending our way to happiness, and believing that our self-worth comes from how busy we are.  I worship at those altars, sometimes more than I want to admit out-loud.

A few weeks ago in a sermon I asked the question, "What is the speed limit of your life?"  The follow up question could be, "Does someone need to give you a speeding ticket?"  It was one of those questions that came out of my mouth unscripted, but it is one that I cannot outrun, no matter how much I try to fill my day.  We all need to slow down, learn that the speed of life is not the speed of sound or light, but much slower.  

What is the speed limit in your life right now?  Are you moving too fast, is life a blur?  Or are things moving slow?  When in the valley moments of life, it can feel like time moves at a snails pace.  Moments of pain seem to fill and bog down the second hand of our watch.  Then, there are moments of joy when you look up and wonder, "Where did the time go?"  And our minds know that time cannot move slower or faster, it is our perception and interpretation of it.

How is time moving for you right now?  Or to put that question one other way, How is it with your soul?  Maybe you prefer one of the other questions above to that one, which feels vulnerable.  I hope one of the questions in this blog will sit with you and stay around your life.  I don't know that I will every answer the above questions once and for all, but they are good questions for me to ask and let God get a word in edgewise.  

May you ponder prayerfully your speed limit and may there be more than a trace of God's grace in the responses.  Then, may that grace guide you in the living out of these days.

Blessings ~