Faith
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
by John Mark Comer
A pastor's argument that hurry, not doubt, is what is quietly killing modern spiritual life, and that the cure is a set of very old practices.
Overview
John Mark Comer was leading a fast-growing church in Portland when he realised he was successful, exhausted and spiritually thinning out. He stepped back from the role, and this 2019 book is the result, built on Dallas Willard's counsel that a person must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from their life. Its subject is not scheduling but formation: the pace we accept quietly determines the people we become, and love, joy and peace do not survive at speed. It found unusually wide readership among young professionals who had never heard busyness named as a spiritual condition.
Key ideas
- 01
Hurry Is a Spiritual Condition
Comer separates being busy from being hurried. Work can be full while the soul stays unhurried; hurry is the inner state of rushing, and it is incompatible with the very things faith is meant to produce. You cannot be patient at speed, or present with your children while mentally three tasks ahead. Naming hurry as a spiritual problem rather than a scheduling one is the book's provocation and its gift.
- 02
The Easy Yoke Is an Apprenticeship
Following Jesus, Comer argues, was never meant to be one more item on an overloaded diary. It is an apprenticeship, a whole way of arranging life around a teacher, which requires a rule of life: a deliberate set of practices, rhythms and limits chosen in advance rather than squeezed into gaps. Without structure, spiritual intention loses every time to whatever is loudest.
- 03
Four Practices That Actually Slow You
The prescriptions are unfashionably concrete: silence and solitude, Sabbath, simplicity and slowing. Sabbath means a full day of stopping rather than a lie-in. Simplicity means buying less so you owe less and can want less. Slowing means deliberately choosing the longer queue or the slower lane to break the reflex of rushing. They are small, awkward, and they work on the body before they reach the soul.
Apply it today
Take one unbroken hour this week with no phone, no music and no agenda, a walk or a chair and silence, and notice how strongly you want to fill it.
- Being rating
- ★★★★★Warm, convicting and practical, though much of the thinking is borrowed from Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, and the advice assumes enough margin to slow down, which is harder counsel for a trader feeding three dependants than for a salaried professional.
- Best for
- Christians in demanding careers, pastors, and any parent whose children mostly encounter them distracted.