SLOW DOWN! WHAT’S THE HURRY?

By REVEREND TONY ZEKVELD

What a fast-paced society we live in. To use an English idiom, “It’s a rat-race!” A rat-race is “a way of life in which people are caught up in a fiercely competitive struggle for wealth or power”.

We have no time to sit down together with our wife and children for dinner. Or is it that we make no time? We make little time to cultivate and nurture needed relationships with our children.

People are always on the run, earning the next buck or keeping the next appointment. There’s no time to smell the roses, that is to enjoy or appreciate what is often ignored – your daughter’s poem she wrote for school, or reading your son’s short story he wrote for his teacher.

We are pursuing, chasing after things. But to what end? What’s the goal? If anything, our frenetic pace in life reveals our deep anxieties from within. We are anxious; not in a state of peace and tranquility.

Something is missing in life. Is life first of all about achieving, acquiring, gaining things? Is this the paramount purpose in life? 

No, this is backwards. Living life like this is like putting the cart before the horse. This is the wrong order in life. God did not create us, first of all, so that we can chase after these things. He knows we need these things.

He created us, first of all, to seek Him. What are we to be seeking? Jesus says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). Notice that? He says “But seek first…”

In other words, seek first of all to live your life in a right relationship with God, serving Him. Trust Him. We do that by surrendering our lives to Christ. Then we can believe His promise, “and all these things shall be added unto you”. This is the proverbial ‘horse before the cart’ way of life.

This is the secret to overcoming the anxieties that continually bubble up from deep within. Trusting in God, as your heavenly Father, is the secret to leading a more tranquil life. Yes, no doubt, a hard-working life, but also a tranquil life. Then we can make time to appreciate and enjoy the small things in life. Then, we find we are no longer chasing after things, but actually living!