The Sin of Hurry

One morning, I got caught hurrying again. I was on my way to coach our college football team. As usual, I’d tried to cram too much into the early morning hours. The blinking lights of a car made me pull over, and a somber man in blue gave me a copy of a yellow form titled “Municipal Traffic Court.” The charge: I had broken the law. I had been hurrying too fast.

As I drove on, the Lord spoke to me, “You broke the law.” I agreed.

“No,” He continued., “You don’t understand. You broke The Law.” Breaking a man-made law was serious enough, but I was guilty of breaking a far greater eternal rhythm. I had submitted to the sin of hurry.

A Life-Changing Event

Nikos Kazantzakis, in his book Zorba the Greek, relates a life-changing event. “I remembered one morning when I discovered a cocoon in the bark of a tree, just as the butterfly was making a hole in its case and preparing to come out. I waited a while, but it was too long appearing and I was impatient. I bent over it and breathed on it to warm it. I warmed it as quickly as I could, and the miracle began to happen before my eyes, faster than life. The case opened. The butterfly started slowly crawling out, and I shall never forget my horror when I saw how its wings were folded back and crumpled before its time. It struggled desperately and a few seconds later died in the palm of my hand.

“That little body is, I do believe, the greatest weight I have on my conscience. For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry. We should not be impatient. But we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm. If only that little butterfly could always flutter before me to show me the way.”

How Can We Avoid the Sin of Hurry?

Time is a holy mystery. It doesn’t matter what kind of time it is—Greenwich, Daylight Savings, Standard, Mountain, or Pacific. We never seem to have enough of it.

How can we avoid the sin of hurry? By being absolutely surrendered to Him, releasing our self-imposed deadlines, and living in the rhythm of “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give,” with no apologies, no excuses, no regrets, living in moment-by-moment obedience to His timing.

Lord God, Creator of time and eternity, forgive me for submitting to the sin of hurry.

“For there is a time there for every purpose and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:17, NKJV).

If you liked this, you might also like In His Time | Christians Need to Recover the Lost Art of Patience 

Tim Hansel was the author of numerous books and the original founder of Summit Expedition.

By Tim Hansel. Excerpted from Fit Forever, compiled by Kay Kuzma, copyright © 2005 by Review & Herald Publishing.

© 2002 - 2024, AnswersForMe.org. All rights reserved. Click here for content usage information.