I don’t remember who told me this story, or if I read it in a book, but it came to me at a period of my life when I was suddenly more teachable than ever before having come to the end of “myself” and it made a huge impact.
The story was of a pastor who had just gotten a call to a much larger ministry and wanted to seek out the council of a well known and highly successful pastor of an even larger ministry. He was excited to get a lunch appointment with this pastor and came ready to glean as much wisdom as he could from this one meal they would share. After they had ordered he explained that he was soon going to be going to a larger ministry and wanted as much advice as possible on how to survive and thrive in this new bigger ministry. The seasoned pastor smiled, and calmly responded, “Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” The younger pastor wrote down this first bit of advice and then looked up ready to write down the next pearl of wisdom this godly man would have to share… but no words followed. Seeing the look of bewilderment on the younger man’s face, the older man said, “Yes, that’s it. Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” I remember the younger pastor saying that he was kind of irritated and annoyed because he was really hoping to go home with more than just one quote. But years later he discovered just how wise that one piece of advice was, in fact, the KEY to success in life as well as ministry.
This has been a key part of my journey the past two years since I went full time with Kidology and stopped having two full time ministries. There have been seasons in my life where I was in such a hurry DOING for God that I forgot how to BE. Ruthlessly eliminating hurry from my life has become my passionate pursuit. But “hurry” has a way of creeping back in, it is still how I am naturally wired. So this week, as I began to feel the pressure building again, I made this wallpaper to remind myself not to lose any of the progress I have made.
Enjoy this wallpaper:
(Open above image in new window for larger view)
Let me encourage you to make this your wallpaper for a few weeks and ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life!
When I get some time I will post a response to this. Thanks