How To Deal With The Ugly Twins Named Hurry & Worry.

FullSizeRender
FullSizeRender

Easily one of my favorite days of the year for our staff at Elim Gospel Church is a day we call “Learning Loop”.

This is the day our team gets brutally honest about the biggest “hits”, “misses” and “learnings” from the past year in their personal lives and ministry teams.

It’s a day of collaboration.

Collaboration is such a beautiful thing because it’s made up of two of God’s favorite ingredients: generosity and humility.

[Tweet "Courage makes collaboration possible. "]

It involves courageous generosity to give and courageous vulnerability to receive.

The gold that comes out in this team gathering is always ridiculous.

People who rarely “preach” before big crowds have more “drop the mic” moments than some of the most gifted communicators I’ve heard.

Bryan March blog phot
Bryan March blog phot

Bryan March, one of our team members, is often behind a camera, flying a drone or engaging in hours of computer editing- all to creatively capture someone else’s message.

One of his gifts is helping other people get their unique voice heard and message out.

Not this day.

This time it was his turn to speak.

The following is some of the gold that Bryan laid down for our team to pick up and some of the inspiration it gave me.

I’m still not sure if what he gave us was a spoken word, a sermon or a prophetic declaration.

Either way, it marked me real deep. I hope it speaks to you as much as it did to me!

We have been warned that worry is imagination abuse. That is so true.

And yet, what’s worse is that worry has an ugly twin named hurry.

Stressed business man rushing in the office
Stressed business man rushing in the office

[Tweet "Hurry is a top predator in fear's ecosystem. @BryanFMarch"]

Hurry is always hungry, but confronting it with peace is the best strategy to beat it.

Hurry tells us that windows of opportunity are closing all around us. Thankfully, peace reminds us that it is never out of stock, never goes out of season, and is continually available to us.

Only peace will dictate a healthy pace and keep us on the very best path. That path leads us to our redemptive potential.

Hurry knocks on the front door of your mind, so worry can pick the back door to your heart. 

Hurry is distrust’s smoke grenade. Hurry's goal is to create an internal fog that keeps you blind to the movement of distrust and feeds disconnection from God in our lives.

Hurry’s goal is the surrender of our peace.

[Tweet "To be oriented to hurry is to be disoriented to solution. @BryanFMarch"]

Hurry burns the bridge of connection between my head and my heart, but peace safely signals my heart’s need to reconnect to the renewed mind.

God doesn’t worry. He never has. There is never a moment of disintegration between the heart  and mind of God.

The secret to the peaceful heart is validation from our Father. This validation develops an ever-increasing integration in our soul.

If we want to steward our life responsibilities well, peace is the place to live. After all, it’s the God of “Peace” that crushes Satan under our feet. (Romans 16:20)

When we are walking in peace we can know and feel God’s heart for others. Peace creates perspective.

Sometimes we have to pause from “business as usual” to reposition ourselves to receive fresh peace. Here are some of the things that have helped me recently stay more connected to peace in a season of major transition:

  • Aggressively list out in your mind 5 things you are thankful for before getting out of bed.
  • Write up a personal declaration that you speak over yourself and your day before breakfast.
  • Take a 5-min mental vacation in the car, bathroom or any quiet place you can find!
  • Stay in your caran extra few minutes to soak with some worship music before entering your job.
  • Clear your mindbefore stepping into the house.
  • Hit the pillow and end your day with gratitude for God's presence.

[Tweet "Where God can speak, He'll talk. @BryanFMarch "]

Hurry wants to be the mute button on our relational remote with God. But peace turns the volume up to make even the quietest whisper, audible.

When we can hear Him, we can have His peace.

"I am leaving you with a gift; peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid." -Jesus  (John 14:27 NLT)

Join The Conversation. Leave A Comment. 

"What practical secrets have you experimented with in your daily or weekly routine that have helped position you to walk in peace?" 

"What do you think is one of the biggest fears feeding hurry in your life?"