“Rivers know that there is no hurry. We shall all get there one day.”
--Winnie the Pooh
It’s probably not a coincidence that my recreational yin and yang are snow skiing and fly fishing. And while I try to spend as much time as I can on ski slopes in the winter, I try to spend as much time as I can wading trout streams in the summer. I need to balance my need for speed with the contemplation of wetting a line, watching a fly and trying to fool fish while standing in a river.
There is a lot you can learn from a river and mostly that it just flows. Rivers don’t slow down or speed up, they simply do what the terrain demands. The greater the snow melt, the more rocks in the river bed, the narrower the banks, the faster it flows. But when the terrain mellows, the rocks disappear and the banks flatten, the river simply slows down.
In many ways, I think we’ll better learn this spiritual discipline of hastening slowly if we’ll let ourselves live like a river.
Recognize that there are going to be stretches of rapids, (even long stretches) but look for the wide spots to level out and run slowly. Linger in those spots. Resist the temptation to add hurry to your life. Learn to "go with the flow." There are different seasons where life will go faster, so we don’t need to add to that by making life even more hectic to fulfill our own unconscious needs.
In Mark 6:30-34, Jesus' disciples had so much ministry going on that they couldn’t even find time to eat. But for them this was not some badge of honor, some affirmation of their importance, it was a simply a reality to face.
The ministry was picking up speed, the flow was beginning to race down hill, the needs were like boulders that they had to roll over, their lives were like crashing rapids, bouncing back and forth.
So Jesus tells them to come away and rest. They cross the sea on a boat to get some time alone, to slow the flow. But the crowd and all of their needs followed. So much for their time to bask. So much for their sabbatical, their time for rest.
The crowd was like sheep without a shepherd, and he has compassion on them. Jesus interrupts their retreat and cares for them. It was not a moment where the pace would slow.
But! Twelve verses later, after one more act of ministry, Jesus himself pulls away to rest and pray.
You know what? This is Jesus’ usual pattern. Five times in three different ministry events in a brief period of time he slows down. What we learn from this passage is that life, even as Jesus lives it, is a rhythm of both rest and racing.
How is that rhythm in your life? Are you busy or are you hurried? Is there a rhythm of both rest and racing, or it is just all just rushing from one thing to the next.
Usually when we are hurrying, we are trying to do one too many things that are more inspired by our anxiety, fears or competition than anything else.
Hasten slowly. Let the banks determine the pace, but be the same in the middle. Let the terrain speed up the flow of life, not anxiety.
Be a river that stays with the banks, not a flood or swamp that insists on overrunning the boundaries, doing too much, going too far. Know your limits and live within them. That will be fast enough.
In my book, Show Time, I used the metaphors of rivers and snow skiing to talk about the benefits of developing the virtue of self-control. In many ways, we who struggle with slowing down, also need to consider how much we need to develop genuine, freeing self-control in other areas of our lives.
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