The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

Week 2 | The Problem | Something is deeply wrong

 
 

Explore it more

REFLECT | 'What is going on in our life right now?’

Discuss

  • Did you manage to implement the ONE THING you said you were going to do differently this week? Why/Why not? (Not supposed to be condemning, just an acknowledgement)

  • John Mark Comer writes,‘Psychologists and mental health professionals are now talking about an epidemic of the modern world: ‘hurry sickness.’ As in, they label it as a disease.

    • If the definitions of ‘hurry disease’ are as follows, are there aspects of your life where it it manifests?

      • A behaviour pattern characterised by continual rushing and anxiousness (1)

      • A malaise in which a person feels chronically short of time, and so tends to perform every task faster and gets flustered when encountering any kind of delay (2)

ENGAGE | ‘How do we engage with what God is saying to us?

Discuss

  • How many of the Ten symptoms that John Mark Comer lists as symptoms of ‘hurry sickness’ (p48) do you see in your own everyday life?

    • Irritability

    • Hypersensitivity

    • Restlessness

    • Workaholism (or just non stop activity)

    • Emotional numbness

    • Out-of-order priorities

    • Lack of care for your body

    • Escapist behaviours

    • Slippage of Spiritual disciplines

    • Isolation

….by the way REJECT ANY GUILT OR SHAME YOU’RE FEELING RIGHT NOW. IT’S NOT HELPFUL, RARELY FROM GOD, AND DEFINITELY NOT THE AGENDA OF THIS EXERCISE

  • If many things in our modern world are designed to steal our attention, then could attention be our scarcest resource? Jesus wisely said our hearts will follow behind our treasures. Our most precious treasure/resource is attention…discuss.

    • John Mark Comer, makes the point that Attention leads to Awareness. Were you aware of God in your day today? Remember God is omnipresent (there is no place that God is not)

INSPIRE | - 'How do we inspire each other to ‘TRY’ something this week? What opportunities are in front of us, that we can choose to explore?’

Discuss

  • What ONE thing am I going to take the opportunity to ‘TRY’ this week?

Go Deeper

To reflect on this week

  • ‘Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.’ John Ortberg

  • Jesus said ‘What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?’ (Mark 8 v 36, msg)

  • When we hurry are we running

    • from something

      • father wounds, childhood trauma, last names, deep insecurity or deficits of self-worth, fear of failure, pathological inability to accept the limitations of our humanity, or simply boredom with the mundanity of middle life.

    • to something

      • promotions or purchases or experiences or stamps on a passport or the next high, a sense of sense of self worth, love, acceptance

  • What are your reflections on the following quote by John Mark Comer

    • what you give your attention to is the person you become (p54)

  1. Rosemary K. M Sword andPhilip Zimbardo, “Hurry Sickness: Is our Quest to D All and Be All Costing Us Our Health?,” Psychology Today, February 9, 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-time-cure/201302/hurry-sickness.

  2. Meyer Friedman and Ray H. Rosenman, Type A Behaviour and Your Heart (New York: Knopf, 1974), 33.

  3. Thomas Merton, Conjuctures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday, 1966),