In the book, Comer claims “the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.” I’ve also heard it said “you become what you behold.” So, what are you giving your attention to? After providing some history of how our world came to this constant state of hurry, Comer offers four practices to help us slow down and refocus our attention on Christ. 

Her phone dings. There is a Slack notification and messages from her daughter demanding to be picked up earlier than planned. She pours some coffee then notices an email from her boss. It looks like he scheduled a last minute meeting to discuss “important developments” in her department. The meeting is in an hour. She checks the time.

Her phone rings. It’s her husband. He sounds distraught. A knock on the office door interrupts her conversation. “Joey just quit,” says the voice on the other side. “What do you want us to do?”

“I’ll be right there,” she replies. “Honey, let me call you right back,” she tells her husband. Her body tries to catch her mind as she hurries to the door.

Her phone dings.

I think we all can relate to this lady. Life is moving at incredible speeds and we don’t know how to push the breaks. We’re not sure where the off ramp is or that one even exists.

The truth is, busyness and hurry has infected our lives like a plague. Not only can it cause physical and mental illness, it can also cause real damage to our spiritual lives.

Dallas Willard called hurry the great enemy of the spiritual life. It makes sense. The busier we become, the more likely we are to miss the reality of God. Our schedules, to-do lists, demands, emails, meetings, and notification after notification can easily derail our intimacy with the Lord.

In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer provides some tools to help God’s people slow down. Similar to Willard, he believes hurry is an epidemic distracting us from God and making us sick.

In the book, Comer claims “the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.” I’ve also heard it said “you become what you behold.” So, what are you giving your attention to?

After providing some history of how our world came to this constant state of hurry, Comer offers four practices to help us slow down and refocus our attention on Christ. The practices or rhythms are not new.

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