Lord, I keep hearing You tell me not to hurry.
Even in confinement, I’ve felt like I needed to get so much done, more even than usual. It started with finishing up edits for a novel and catching up on all the crazy correspondence after being offline for two weeks in early March. Then it morphed into not only the typical video calls we schedule with our One Collective workers and our families, but now, in confinement, we have calls with our church here in France and back home, with friends far and wide. With everyone. For which I am grateful, but I can sense an urge to hurry.
In the online Bible study I’m facilitating with other One Collective women, we’ve been discussing our tendencies to rush and hurry and of our desire to slow down in our minds even as we’re being forced to slow down physically during confinement.
Oh, You’ve slowed me down in my spirit so many times over the years. How thankful I am that ‘Sabbath’ and ‘rest’ and ‘solitude’ are familiar, welcomed words. But You know how often I need those reminders.
So yesterday in my daily devotions associated with the study, I was supposed to do a Lectio Divina from John 1: 35-39. Lectio Divina is a slow reading of the passage out loud several times, listening for a word or phrase that catches my attention. And then reflecting on it slowly.
But I’d just found out that the wonderful nursery down the street was open. I’d assumed it was closed during confinement, not considered ‘essential’. So I had never tried to go there. A month in confinement and no flowers to plant. But that hadn’t bothered me because of all of the perennial flowers bursting forth in the yard.
But suddenly I wanted to hurry through my Lectio so that I could get to the garden shop!
Ah, the irony!
Fortunately, You and the Lectio won out. Since I’d done a Lectio on John 1 several times, I decided to go back to my Proverbs reading, which I had paused for the past month while doing daily devotions for the Bible study. Next in order came Proverbs 19.
And Lord, it was again You showing up right here in the midst of my situation. You stopped me in my tracks in verse 2: “The one who acts hastily sins.”
Really, Lord, really? I’d been confessing the temptation to hurry through this Lectio, and then I read this.
Gulp.
I argued with You (not a good idea!) that I didn’t think hurry had to equal sin, but I sat with this verse anyway and thought about how often in the past I was begging You to free me from the old sins that can still trip me up. Yes, I confess them more quickly, yes, I spiral up, but how many times have I longed for You to completely uproot those idols.
But as I prayed and reflected, I thought to myself, “Hmm. Maybe You’re asking me to slow down in a different way. Maybe even before quickly confessing, (in a sense hurrying to get that yucky confession stuff over with), You’re asking me to stop, ponder, and wonder what’s Your invitation when I’m stirred by those old temptations. Maybe You want me to keep digging around in my soul so that You can heal any lingering junk that I notice.
Well, You weren’t finished with me in verse 2. A little further on I literally laughed out loud when I read: “…a poor person is separated from his friends…how much more do his friends keep their distance from him!”
Again Your Word and the words in Your Word, in this translation of Your Word, mystify, delight, and confound me!
First that word ‘hastily’ reinforced my thoughts about ‘hurry’, giving me plenty to ponder.
And then the words ‘separated’ and ‘keep their distance’ leapt out at me like flashing neon lights as we’re in our sixth week of social distancing, of being separated from our friends!
I felt like You were winking at me and saying, “Lizzie, how long has it been since you opened this Bible? Probably almost a month. Yes, you’re reading the Word, but not in this Bible. But dear, it isn’t hard for Me to speak to you with these words on the day you decide to open this Bible to the next chapter.”
Nothing is hard for You, Lord. I am constantly in awe, so please, please, let the awe and wonder and delight accompany me today and chase away the hurry, knowing that You are absolutely capable of getting me wherever You’d like me to be in my mind, body, and spirit. On time.
How are you slowing down in your mind, body, and spirit during this time?
P.S. I did spend a lovely morning (mask in place) buying flowers at the nursery after I finished my devotions! And yes, I soaked up that experience slowly!
ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.
Elizabeth Musser 
Ma chère amie, you have such a beautiful and deep way to express your thoughts and dicoveries in God’s Word….my soul is touched and inspired. May slowing down be a blessing for ever.
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