Jesus Didn't Hurry

Taken from Unwrapping Christmas by Lori Copeland. A letter written by Karen Hancock.

Jesus Didn't Hurry

Jesus was never in a hurry. He accomplished the greates work a man ever accomplished in only three and a half years, yet he was never worried or hurried or flustered or stressed. He wasn't concerned with building a big ministry, either, nor was he rushing off to do this or that, urging his disciples to get this or that, going to see such and such. he stopped and talked to the people who came into his life without checking his watch. His disciples did not stand at his elbow reminding him he had to be in Capernaum by sundown or Jerusalem by the next day. Sometimes he just went fishing.
The thing that struck me was that sometimes it's okay to do nothing. Because this concept is bound up in what I am learning about creative process, I find this especially exciting. After a cell is finished dividing there is a period of rest before anything else happens. If cell division is about growth, and it is, then growth is about rest. This seems an obvious fact when you look at children, who grow at prodigious rates and yet need a lot of rest. Even as adults God has created us to require about eight hours of sleep every night. Americans seem on a headlong charge to do away with rest and sleep as quickly as possible.
Article after article documents the growing epidemic of sleep deprivation and everyone is always in a hurry, always pressed for time despite the time savers of fast food, fast cars, and fast Internet. With cell phones, microwaves, and bagged, ready-to-eat lettuce, we have more time than ever and yet seem more frazzled than ever. Voices from our media-saturated lives constantly offer us new things to do and have, new ways to achieve, new areas to improve so we can get more done. There isn't much talk about doing nothing. Whatever happened to "come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" As believers we are children fully accepted by our Father already. Wy do we need to do all these things? what are we trying to prove?
I count it no accident that the Father called Jesus his beloved son in whom he was well pleased before he had done one thing in his ministry. The Bible's silence on those years between ages twelve and thrity is also not an accident. He wasn't doing great things for God during those times. And God made it a point to declare him already beloved and well-pleasing anyway. As believers, we are in union with him and thus we too are beloved and well-pleasing before we do anything.
So why are we so obsessed wtih achieving things? Why must we live harried, driven lives when all we are called to do is take his yoke and learn of him? As children of God, we have nothing to prove and nothing in this world to gain. Seek him fist and all things will be added to your life, Matthew tells us. David wrote of grace and mercy pursuing him, not the other way around.
Jesus was not in a hurry. I don't have to be either. I don't have to worry about meeting my deadline, because he will see to that. I don't have to worry about building a big ministry, because he will see it is whatever size he has chosen it to be. I don't have anything to prove because children of God don't have to prove anything. I only have to follow him and learn of him, and in so doing, I will find the rest that is the Christian way of life.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke
upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30


Please remember, I did not write this. I just read it in the back of the book I got yesterday from the library. If you have a chance to read this book, I recommend it. It was a quick read, since I started and finished it last night while babysitting. It reminds us to not get so busy serving others and meeting others expectations, that we neglect what really matters...God.