The Risk in Rushing

by Aug 12, 2022Easy and Light

The Risk in Rushing

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matthew 6:33 (ESV)

“H ow’s your summer?” one mom asked another a few feet away from me on the sidewalk. “Or rather, how was your summer? I guess it’s over now.” Over?!? There were still 7½ weeks of summer left until the autumnal equinox, and 5 weeks until school started. The woman had commented cheerfully enough, but I winced all the same. Why were we rushing the end of this glorious break from the schoolyear grind? I understood where she was coming from, though, because I do the same thing. Just that week I had posted on social media how excited I was to go back-to-school shopping, and I had liked another friend’s post with a GIF of a countdown to fall. Why are we always rushing toward the next season? The next stage of life? The next… everything?
Lord, give me eyes to see the purpose and potential of each moment before me, and not to rush through the opportunities you lay before me.

It’s not wrong to have enthusiasm for what is coming next, or to plan for life directions we hope to take. But rushing is different. Jesus doesn’t rush. In fact, He takes the opposite approach, embracing what we might see as delays or distractions.

In the story of Lazarus’s death in John 11, Martha and Mary send word to Jesus that their brother is deathly ill. Jesus gets the message but waits two more days before heading their way. Jesus cared deeply for these three siblings, yet he didn’t rush. His end was still achieved: Lazarus is raised from the dead.

Mark 5 tells a similar story of a synagogue leader named Jairus who seeks Jesus to heal his dying daughter, but Jesus stops along the way when He feels His power going out from Him to heal the bleeding woman. He could have rushed through the moment; after all, the woman’s faith had already healed her. But Jesus stops to speak with her, making this private encounter a public miracle.

In John 4, Jesus takes a shortcut from Judea to Galilee by going through Samaria — incredibly taboo in His day — but when He meets the Samaritan woman at the well, He changes her life, and then visits her town and stays 2 days, losing the “advantage” of the shortcut.

If Jesus, who holds the power of life and death in his hands, doesn’t need to rush, why do we think we need to?

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