In this episode, I unpack the lessons from “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” by John Mark Comer.
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Full Transcript:
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry from John Mark Comer is one of those books that just grabbed me as soon as I heard the title. My business partner suggested it a while ago and I read it it was fantastic. I’m excited to walk you through it. The one thing that surprised me though is how much Comer pulled his faith into the book. And it’s not a bad thing. I’m a Christian. I love what he did here. He pulls in lot of scripture and stuff. Even if you’re not a Christian though, I encourage you to stick around because this book is fantastic. And even with the scriptural references, I think you’ll see how they tie in and can apply to anyone here. I’m actually gonna start with a quote from a completely different book though.
This is not one I’ve read. heard this on a podcast recently. I probably will read it at some point. But the book is called Jesus, a biography from a believer. And in the book it says, quote, Jesus was not thus overburdened by a program of specific appointments to teach. While always at work, he gives the impression of finding time to chat, albeit not about trivialities. There’s never a sense of hurry. So Jesus in that book, I he talks about how he was not a person that hurried. had a sense of purpose and had things to accomplish. So he was busy, but was not hurried. He stayed focused on what matters. And so with this book here,
The Gideon McComber shares early on how he says, in America, you can be a success as a pastor and a failure as an apprentice of Jesus. Meaning pastors can get so overworked and so busy and so hurried that they’re not doing a great job of that. And so what’s going on here? So he digs in with the hurry being the great enemy of spiritual life. ⁓ He pulls a quote from Carl Jung that says, hurry is not of the devil, hurry is the devil. More importantly, says, hurry and love are incompatible. And then lastly, he kind of says,
To restate, love, joy, and peace are at the heart of all Jesus is trying to grow in the soil of your life, and all three are incompatible with hurry.” So he talks a lot about how hurry is the problem, and I think a lot of us recognize that already. Again, the title drew me in, and so knew the title. I already knew hurry was a problem, and it’s something I struggle with, certainly I think we all struggle with to a degree. ⁓ He pulled in another quote from Walter Adams, the spiritual director of C.S. Lewis, and said, quote, to walk with Jesus is to walk with a slow, unhurried pace.
Hurry is the death of prayer and only impedes and spoils our work. It never advances it. So hurry never advances your work. And I think I agree with that as well. So then he gets into a brief history of speed and how speed became such a big thing, kind of starting with the iPhone in 2007, how that was kind of a turning point. And he says back, has a quote early on, says, before Edison, the average person slept 11 hours a night compared to about seven hours today and how technology is kind of reshaping our look with things there.
Going back further, talks about Johannes Gutenberg and how the printing press kind of set the stage for all this stuff. And then kind of gives us a reminder that your phone doesn’t really work for you. You pay for it, but it works for a multi-billion dollar corporation in California, not for you. You are not the customer, you’re the product. It’s your attention that’s for sale along with your peace of mind. And I like that too. I’ve heard that you’re not the customer, you’re the product. And again, really it’s not you’re the product, but your attention is the product. They’re trying to take your attention, take your business, make you make everything worse basically to sell more things.
So again, he kind of gets more into how things are wrong here. He talks about hurry sickness. He says, hurry is a violence on the soul. And so the 10 symptoms he gives us, hurry sickness, so things that you may recognize a little bit, are irritability, hypersensitivity, restlessness, workaholism, or just nonstop activity, emotional numbness, out of order priorities, lack of care for your body, escapist behavior, slippage of spiritual disciplines, and isolation. And.
Yeah, Mary Oliver, who’s someone else he quoted in book, who’s not a Christian, but he says a lifelong spiritual seeker, said that attention is the beginning of devotion. So I think you can apply that to a lot of things. Devotion could be to your church, to your God, to your whatever. It could be to your spouse, to your kids. Like, if you want to devote yourself to something, you need to give it attention. And hurry is kind of the opposite of attention. You’re getting scattered too many places. You’re not giving your attention to anything. So attention is the beginning of devotion. I kind of love that piece there. Also in the book, John says,
because attention leads to awareness in the contemplative degree. The mystics point out that what’s missing is awareness, meaning the chronic problem of human beings felt experience of distance from God, God isn’t usually the culprit. So if you’re feeling distant from God, you know, that’s not really the problem. What you give your attention to is the person you become. And so then he gets into the solution. So cool, we have this problem laid out, let’s get the solution. Chapter four is actually titled Hint, The Solution Isn’t More Time.
This is one that kind of hit me hard because I’ve said for years, said, you know what I’d love? I wish I could only sleep like two hours a night. I get more hours in my day to get more things done. And again, that’s not solutions. I would fill that up certainly too and then still be too busy. So how are we going to, how are we going to fix things here? He says, here’s my point. The solution to an over busy life is not more time. It’s a slow down and simplify our lives one around what really matters. And so he talks about limitations we have and he gives 10 limitations that we’re all facing. And I love these. This is an interesting one to see what are we limited by. And so we’re limited by one, our bodies.
our minds, our giftings, our personalities and emotional wiring. Number five is our families of origin, our socioeconomic origins, our education and careers, our season of life and their responsibilities, our 80 or so years of life, and then God’s call on our lives. And all things that can limit what we’re able to do. And so we all have different places for how that can go. So next we talk about the easy yoke, kind of talking about the easy yoke in Matthew 11. know, my yoke is easy, my burden is light type thing. So how does that work? How does Jesus make that work?
He talks more about that. But he really ultimately gets into an easy life isn’t an option. Like we’re not saying in this book like we’re gonna make your life easy, but an easy yoke is. Like you can still control things. You’re gonna still be, have your trouble, you’re gonna have financial issues, you have financial issues in your marriage or with your kids or with work or there’s gonna be problems. We’re not escaping all the problems. Easy life is not an option, but the easy yoke is. You can still handle yourself, handle life, reduce hurry and make things work a little bit better. So he talked about how this is a rule of life. Gives us some of the spiritual disciplines.
What I really like is he gets into part three of the book, the four practices for unhurrying your life. He unpacks these quite a bit. So the four practices we’ll kind of dig into a little bit. One is silence and solitude. Two is Sabbath. Three is simplicity. And four is slowing. So all the S’s there, but they all kind of work together. So gets into silence and solitude a little bit and talks about how Jesus withdrew to solitary places for prayer. ⁓ Quoted Henry Nguyen saying, without solitude it is virtually impossible to live a spiritual life. You know, solitude is essential for that.
Sabbath one is more interesting. really want to dig more into this myself, frankly, just having that stop day, a day that’s just set aside to not be doing other things. I actually met with a guy not too long ago that honored the Sabbath every Saturday and did a great job with it. was a pastor out in California and his Sabbath was amazing. And he just read and hung out with his wife and, you know, did some things, but made sure not to work and, you know, followed the Sabbath. It was great. Not many people do that. You can even hear around us, we have Chick-fil-A that’s closed on Sunday, but
people mostly just wish they were open on Sunday and go somewhere else instead. I appreciate what they try to do there, but it doesn’t really fall off to the rest of us as well as it should. But it really should. Walter Brueggemann was quoting the book. He said, quote, people who keep Sabbath live all seven days differently. So he says, watch out for the Sabbath. It will mess with you. First it will mess with one day of your week. Then it will mess with your whole week. And so being able to take that day off to really think and recharge, which again, I’ve not practiced yet. I would like to, I need to dig into that some more. But the idea of it is fascinating.
He talks more about how to use it as rest and worship, to use it as resistance. There’s lots of great uses for Sabbath if you can do it right. And it’s something we should look at. The second one he talks about is simplicity. He says Jesus taught that life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. You know, in Luke 12-15, it’s not all about your possessions. ⁓ He advocates for minimalism, defining simplicity as, the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of everything that distracts us from them. So if and when you do that, you’ll be happier. Duh, he says. That’s a quote from the book. Everybody knows that.
He says really happiness is right out there. You know, it’s just one PayPal click or one outfit or one gadget one car payment or one mortgage away It’s out of reach but just barely I’m almost there happiness is just around the corner. I get that one more thing I’m gonna be happy and of course, we know that’s not how it works You’re not gonna be happy with that one more gadget or car payment or mortgage or whatever is happening It’s just not gonna happen. You got to approach it a different way He says quote because where you put your resources where you put your heart. It’s the steering wheel to your engine of desire
So he gives some principles for simplicity, two pretty simple, excuse me, ⁓ I thought it was just two, 12 simple principles for simplicity. So let’s run through those real quick. So I love how these lay out here. So it’s about buying things and really about not buying things. So the first one, before you buy something, ask yourself, what is the true cost of this item? What’s it gonna take up in terms of time or additional expenses or whatever? ⁓ He says, before you buy, ask yourself, by buying this, am I oppressing the poor or harming the earth? And that’s becoming increasingly difficult. He says,
You know, ⁓ I’ll quote here from the book. He says, it’s easy to post something on Instagram about how there are 28 million slaves in the world today. We need to end it. That’s great. I’m all for it genuinely. But many of the clothes we’re wearing for a selfie that we took in a device made in rural China are causing it, not ending it. So it’s, it’s much easier said than done. But you know, when you’re buying something really, what is the, the deeper factors of that? Number three says never impulse buy. Number four, when you do buy opt for fewer better things. You know, how can I live with less? How can I get more out of buying less?
Number five when you can share related number six getting the habit of giving things away Live by a budget learn to enjoy things without owning them If you want to buy a boat you can go rent a boat for a fun weekend rather than buying it things like that Number nine cultivate a deep appreciation for creation number ten cultivate a deep appreciation for the simple pleasures Eleven recognized advertising for what it is propaganda and call out the lie and then number twelve lead a cheerful happy revolt against the spirit of materialism
And so yeah, he’s big on simplifying your life in a lot of ways. Again, he talks about simplifying terms of time and calendaring and all that kind of stuff in terms of work, but it’s also in terms of the things you buy and things you spend your money on, because spending money on it, which is costing you time to come up with the money and a lot of times then time to invest into the thing you bought. And so it can make a big difference. I love this idea of his. This feels kind of Steve Jobs-ish ⁓ in terms of his outfits he wears. It’s a longer quote, but I’m going read it because it’s something I may try to go for at some point. I said, quote, the first time I went through my closet,
I decided to limit my wardrobe to six outfits per season, one for every day of the week with Sunday as a choose your own adventure day. I literally had an outfit schedule on the inside of my closet door. If you saw me on Monday, I was wearing my gray sweatshirt and black jeans. So I cut it in half and went down to three outfits per season. Now I was wearing my gray sweatshirt on Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I loved it. Recently, I went down to two for summer. I alternate every other day and it feels great. I love each outfit. They were both ethically and environmentally sourced. For the first time I can ever remember, I have extra money in my clothing budget and no need to spend it.
or desire to. So cool idea. I really like the thought of that. Something I may get into eventually. I’m not sure what that outfit would be is kind of where I struggle, but I think it’s a neat idea and interesting way to simplify, simplify your costs, your decision making, your, you know, again, he said they were ethically and environmentally sourced. You can really take your time to find the right sources to get them. It can be fantastic. Next up he has a chapter on slowing. And again, he has a lot more rules in here. This book is full of rules and I like the rules because they’re really just ideas, you know.
Talks about just, yeah, from driving the speed limit to getting the longest check-out line, just find ways to slow yourself down. It’s all about slowing. ⁓ He said that I noticed, he said quote, I’ve started to notice that the anti-rule people are often anti-schedule people. And anti-schedule people frequently live in a way that is reactive, not proactive. There’s more passengers than driver, consumer than creator. Life happens to them more than through them. So it’s not saying you shouldn’t schedule things. Really, you should schedule things to make sure your life is balanced the way you want. So then he gets into some of those ideas to.
to gamify driving into the spiritual discipline of slowing. So how do you slow down? First one is literally drive the speed limit. Don’t worry about trying to race that guy to the next light and do all that. I’ve been pretty good about that historically, because I know that by going a few extra miles an hour and cutting a few people off and do all that, I’m going get there like 20 seconds sooner. It’s not worth the effort. Just slow down, relax, enjoy life. It’s all good. Two, get in the slow lane. He talks about that. Come to a full stop at stop signs. Don’t text and drive, which is, I think, in his case, wise in terms of focus and.
you know, spirituality and stuff, but also don’t kill yourself texting and driving. ⁓ show up 10 minutes for an early appointment, sans phone. So just show up early for an appointment. Don’t have your phone up the whole time. I was listening to another podcast recently where the guy said he went to the doctor’s office. He got there with 15 minutes early and just kind of sat there. He just wanted to kind of just sit and let his mind wander a little bit. Didn’t look at the magazines or TV or whatever. And people were looking at him kind of funny. Like why is this guy not on his phone or doing something? Just hanging out there, but that can be fantastic for just coming with the ideas and just letting your mind rest a little bit. number six, he says,
Getting the longest line that is the grocery store. Not something I do, but I don’t worry as much about getting the shortest one. I’m not gonna seek out the longest, but I kinda like that again, just to give yourself more time to do nothing. Turn your smartphone into a dumb phone. This is becoming an increasingly popular thing to do. There are a number of new dumb phones out there can buy. Some that are like E-ink screens, like a Kindle, that don’t do as much other than call and text. And if nothing else, you can take some of those apps off your phone. I know a lot of folks that have taken social media off their phone. They still maybe check it on their computer now and then. I think…
kind of a necessary evil to a degree, but you don’t have to check it all the time. He says, or get a flip phone or ditch your cell phone altogether. That’s a tougher call, but certainly something you could do. Number nine, like he says, parent your phone, put it to bed before you and make it sleep in. So give yourself time before you go to sleep. And when you wake up in the morning without your phone, which can be fantastic. Further, he keep your phone off until after your morning quiet time. So have some time in the morning before you get your phone out. Set times for emails. Number 11.
This is something I’ve done from time to time. Say I’m going to check email at nine and three or whatever and only check it then and not let that distract you all the time. Set a time and time limit for social media or just get off of it. Again, it’s a marketing firm. Social media is something we have to do and can, can be very advantageous in terms of marketing for sure. Uh, but certainly you want to set a time limit, not waste your time just flipping through things. And number 13 he has is kill your TV. Uh, number 14, single task. We’ve talked about this in previous episodes that multitasking is a myth. You can pretend to multitask, but you can’t really do it. So
Instead of trying to multitask and just making yourself, you know, getting a little frenzy, just focus on one thing. Say, here’s what I’m going focus on. Let’s do it. Number 15, walk slower. Number 16, take a regular day alone for silence and solitude. This could be a weekly thing like a Sabbath or even a monthly thing or further out, but taking a regular day alone can be awesome. Number 17, take up journaling. Number 18, experiment with mindfulness and meditation. I like a quote he has in here from Tim Keller. He says, quote, persons who meditate become people of substance who have
thought things out and have deep convictions who can explain difficult concepts in simple language and have good reasons behind everything they do. Many people do not meditate. They skim everything, picking and choosing an impulse, having no thought out reasons for their behavior. Following whims, they live shallow lives.” And he puts this under meditation. I almost see this under journaling or in my case blogging. That’s kind of why I blog every day is to make me think out these things. Say, okay, this is a cool headline. This is a cool quote. What does it really mean? Let me unpack that a little bit more. And a journal can do that. I do it in public in a blog. So I have to think out even more.
kind of like this podcast here. read the book, but now it’s pulled in other quotes and it’s kind of making me dig deeper, which I like. But with meditation, you can do that as well. Think through ideas you have and problems and you know, don’t just be so shallow and say, all right, here’s what I believe. Let’s go like really think through and do you believe it? Why do you believe it? Give backup reasons for it. Maybe change your mind, you know, things like that. Number 19 on the list is if you can take long vacations and number 20, cook your own food and eat in. again, not to say going out is a bad thing, but if you can eat in, it’s can save money, can save effort and save.
hustle and rush and just kind of enjoy the time. imagine he would say cook slowly too, like not in terms of the actual cooking, but just the preparation. Take your time, get the dishes out, lay things out, get the table set, you know, take your time and enjoy it. You know, you don’t have to be flying through everything. It can be fantastic. And then he gets into toward the end of the book here into leading a quiet life. He said, for the present is the point at which time touches eternity. I really like that. You know, right now is what matters. Make it your ambition to live a quiet life.
And then he kind of ends with a quote from first Thessalonians four. I’ll kind of end on that. Uh, for indeed you practice it all toward the brothers and sisters who were in Macedonia, but we urge you brothers and sisters to excel even more and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we instructed you. fantastic book from John Mark Comer. It’s only about a five hour audible. So it’s not too long. That’s how I kind of measure books is by audible rather than pages because pages can be so different. yeah, so five hours is not bad. It’s a fantastic book. Encouraged you to give it a listen.
If you have any great insights you gained from it, certainly let me know. Enjoy.
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