Freedom from the push of a hurried life

A FRIEND, who is single, was pointing out why she finds it difficult to get to know someone well enough to have any sort of meaningful companionship. ``Everyone is so busy,'' she said. In the 1980s, there just doesn't seem to be much time. With little more than an existence of ``keeping busy,'' or of being pushed from one moment to the next, life can sometimes feel rather pointless. There's a slavery to the rush of human existence that leaves us longing for peace yet so often feeling inadequate to have it.

However, as in every area of life, Christ Jesus gives us his saving example. He certainly wasn't anxious or hurried.

Jesus was about his Father's business, and the business of understanding and demonstrating the continuity of divine good couldn't be pushed by hurry or by worry. Jesus' mission was always going forward, step by step, never yielding to the limitations of a life measured by years or of days hurried by hours.

Not to be shaken by whatever external pressures might try to make unreasonable demands on his person or his time, Jesus humbly followed God's leading. The Master was where he needed to be when he needed to be there, doing exactly what he needed to do when he needed to do it. Jesus' life confirmed the Old Testament benediction ``In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.''1 And in such spiritual quietness and confidence is also our freedom.

Of course, as the Master's example showed so clearly, such freedom isn't license for apathy or for sidestepping our duties and responsibilities. Rather the freedom from the push of a hurried life is the freedom to accomplish our highest aims in God's service, with the fullest blessing and greatest success. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, states, ``The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action.''2

To know where our center is, who we truly are, and what our spiritual purpose is -- this brings certain stillness even as daily living may rush on around us. When we recognize that God is not only our creator but the supreme power that governs and directs all right action -- ``yesterday, and to day, and for ever'' -- we can more confidently listen for His leading. And, as we listen in prayer, we begin to understand that we're not finite mortal units with limited physical abilities or with less than enough time to live out our deepest hopes and desires.

Actually, God is our center. We are His spiritual man. And, in truth, we are formed to glorify Him. Christian Science teaches that God is divine Principle and unlimited intelligence. This spiritual fact means that our real being as His expression is maintained by divine law. It means that our life is ordered by God's mandate of harmony. And reflecting the divine intelligence, we know all we need to know to fulfill His purpose. God's idea, man, is never at a loss for intelligence, ability, or time. Divine Mind and its idea are unhurried, unpressured.

Eric Sloane, a popular chronicler of early American history, in one of his books has a chapter called ``Speeding up the Seasons.'' Here he observes some of the shortcomings of our ``time-saving'' society. He points out that today's living can be so rushed and we can spend so much time and energy trying to save time that we tend to lose sight of the quality of life that comes only with patient nurturing of good ideas and good activity. He comments, ``Life, after all, cannot be speeded up any more than music can without becoming strained and finally grotesque.''3

With the ``stationary power, stillness, and strength'' of finding our life in God, we will not feel speeded up. We'll be at peace. And, as the ideal of God's purpose becomes the motivating power behind our human actions, we'll actually accomplish so much more than we could with any amount of rush and hurry.

When we have God at the center of our lives, there will always be plenty of action. Yet instead of feeling burdened by all that it seems we have to do and with so little time in which to do it, we will be free to take joy in the good that is continuously going forward in God's purpose for our lives. ``In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.''

1Isa. 30:15. 2Retrospection and Introspection, p. 93. 3The Seasons of America Past (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1958), p. 12.

This is a condensed version of an editorial that appeared in the November 16, 1987 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel. - NO DAILY BIBLE VERSE TODAY -