“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27, NKJV)
As pastors and leaders, it seems unthinkable that we would choose disconnection from God. Yet, in our desire to accomplish, we find our souls in a state of hurry.
Unfortunately, we rarely see the chasm until we’ve lost sight of where we started. We are too busy doing for God, we are on task, or as we justify by saying we are “about the Father’s business.”
In his book You Have a Soul, John Ortberg calls being hurried “an inner condition, a condition of the soul. It means to be so preoccupied with myself and my life that I am unable to be fully present with God, with myself and with other people.”
A recent health crisis caused me to embrace the liminal space where the Spirit of God dwells. The frantic pace of life and ministry came to a screeching halt, not because of my desire to slow, but because He “made me lie down” (Ps.23:2). In this green pasture of necessity I found what I longed for: peace. I could have pushed myself and used Scripture to justify it, but I would have missed what only silence and solitude could offer.
Prayer + Reflection
1. Take a moment and ask God the following question: Lord, does my doing for You flow from my being with You, or is the pace of my life unsustainable?
2. Ask God to show you the areas of your life where you are hurrying rather than being present.
3. Stop what you are doing to sit in the quiet space God is providing and ask Him to fill it with His peace.
