grocery pick up, coffee, and the good Samaritan
- Keelie Schroeder
- Jan 8, 2021
- 8 min read
Slow.
What pops into your brain when you read that word?
Maybe you think of running a race...slow would mean you most likely did not win.
Or you think of a person who has a cognitive delay...in our society, we often refer to someone with learning differences as being slow.
You might think of that day at the office...slow equates to boredom or even more drastic, it could mean a loss of profits.
Does it make you think of traffic? ...slow looks like being late, it's an inconvenience.
What about that movie you saw last week? ...slow would be synonymous with boring, a movie you would not recommend to your mommy group.
Or maybe you are like me and it makes you think of the last time you used that grocery pick-up service...the wait was long, I got antsy, the kids got restless, not a fun situation.
Did anything positive come to mind?
I want to think that slow doesn't always correspond with a negative interaction but in our culture...slow is not a good thing.
On the other hand...
Speed is often revered.
Case and point...I have a small photography business that I advertise through a Facebook Page. Facebook gives out "badges", or positive feedback when I respond quickly to potential clients. Reply in under an hour and Facebook will advertise that as positive publicity for your business when someone tries to message you. Reply in under 30 minutes and you earn a gold star! (okay I made that one up...)
The second-hand selling site Mercari does the same thing. This site does actually give you gold stars (not an actual star but you get the idea) for responding quickly. But have a week where you aren't constantly checking your messages and sorry...you just lost the honor of being a "quick responder".
Our culture literally rewards, promotes, and universally craves speed.
We pick the shortest check-out lines. We want the fastest internet. Locals were thrilled when I-43 finally caught up (pun intended) with the rest of the midwest and changed from 65 mph to 70.
This hurry is absolutely found in how we parent our children as well. We feel a sense of pride when our son is reading at age 4 or our daughter was potty trained at 18 months. We know that they are only little for just a short time yet in the same breath we want them to be bigger so we can get past this hard stage they are in.
Speed looks like productivity and tastes like winning.
But speed does not necessarily produce quality.
Hurry may look and feel worthwhile when we look it in the face but an internal glance at my heart would say otherwise. I see a woman that is less than an image of Jesus. When I am in a hurry, I typically respond with a short temper and a sharp tongue. Hurts to admit but it's true. After just a little reflection, I can see that I am the least kind, the least patient, the least loving when I am in a hurry.
Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. -John Ortberg: Christian author, speaker, and pastor
When I first heard the quote on a podcast recently it reminded me of why I decided to leave my career and stay home with my children full time. We (meaning my husband and I) felt that life was moving at a pace that we could not keep up with. All the running to daycare, to work, to daycare again...the rushing to get dinner prepared, rushing to get ready for bed, rushing to clean up the house, rushing to make lunches for the next day, then collapsing on the couch. We were always rushing to the next thing because there are only so many hours in a day and we had packed our days so full.
We were drowning. Anyone else can relate?
I understand that some of our option to be a single income household is a privilege. We are fortunate enough that we can survive off of one income. However, I would also argue that we are able to do this because of the many counter-cultural choices we have made. Remember, my husband is a PE teacher, not a CEO. We made the choice to live in a small home. We don't have Amazon boxes coming to our door daily. We do not over-commit our kids to the endless list of extracurriculars they could be involved in. But more on that in a later post.
Imagine life is like a coffee cup...
You can fill it all the way to the brim and get a lot of your favorite morning brew. But then it is nearly impossible to walk from the counter to the table. There is no room for error. You cannot be interrupted by the toddler walking underneath you or the baby wanting to be held or your husband leaning in for a peck on the cheek. You are solely focused on not spilling that cup that the world around you happens but you cannot engage with it without fear of spilling over.
Now imagine that same coffee cup filled about a half-inch below the brim. Now you can hug that toddler who walked up to say good morning, now you can reach down and pick up the baby with one hand (because once you're a momma you can do just about anything with one hand) and you can lean into that kiss from your hubby. Now you can interact with the world around you because you have built in margin to your life.
There is less anxiety attached to carrying a mug that has some room to be jostled.
Still can't see the glorification of hurry in our culture?
For those of you know a little about football...let me throw this at you. The other day on Monday Night Football, they flashed a statistic regarding the New England Patriots QB Cam Newton. He has been hurt and struggling recently so the segment was trying to show his dedication to his team and all he is doing to try to get back to his glory days. They flashed a chart showing his daily routine...waking at 4:20 am, then going on to explain all the activities he does throughout the day, and then proceeding to say that he goes to bed around 11:30 pm. The commentators were glorifying his loyalty to the game by the hours he spends in the gym and training.
And we don't question this. We think that, of course, he is doing the right thing to help his return.
This lack of questioning, this acceptance that more equals better, is exactly the problem.
We think that by adding more to our schedule, more to our day, more to our closets, more to our jobs, more to our Amazon shopping carts, by adding more to our lives...we will achieve everything we set out for. But all this adding more is inevitably taking away time from our day. But in our human logic we believe if we hustle hard enough, we can make it all fit. We believe we are limitless so the adding more continues.
Walking with Christ.
I am sure you have all heard this phrase before...meaning someone who is a Christian believer. On the contrary, the phrase walking away from Christ, meaning someone who is questioning their faith or no longer considers themselves a follower of Christ.
But what if we added one more option.
Jeff Bethke recently opened my eyes up to another idea. What we are walking ahead of Christ. Imagine walking on a wooded path with a friend who is content at just watching the birds and gazing at the flowers. You on the other hand are thinking about what to cook for dinner that will be quick and easy so you can run one kid to karate, one kid to dance, and still be home in time to sit in on your weekly Zoom meeting with your book group. You are probably feeling tense, impatient, and wanting to push the pace. You are probably walking ahead of your friend...thinking that if you walk a little faster, your friend will walk a little faster...then you can finally get home to your long list of todos. You are in a hurry.
But God.
Jesus of course achieved this balancing act perfectly. He was on a mission to the cross yet he left room for interruptions, for a slower pace. You never hear of people talking about running with Jesus because like I said before...when I am in a hurry I do not feel loving. And Jesus was the perfect image of love. In fact, hurry is the exact opposite of love when we look at 1 Corinthians and the famous...Love is patient...verse.
You simply cannot be a patient, loving human while also being in a hurry.
We see a perfect example of this in Luke chapter 10.
Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”
“You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”
But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus took up the question and said,
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him up, and fled, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side. In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion. He went over to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on olive oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
“The one who showed mercy to him,” he said.
Then Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
The priest, surely a man of God with righteous intentions, was in such a hurry that he didn't have time to give the man who clearly needed help. We can learn through this simple story that allowing open space in our schedule can give us space to bless others. Life can only be lived right now. In this moment.
A slower pace of life is one that our family has been cultivating over the past few years. This is the first post in a little series on slower living, why it brings us closer to Jesus, and how to practice it in your life. I would LOVE it if you would follow along with me and maybe even try instituting some of the habits I will mention in your own lives.
Remember, I do not have it all together. If we are honest, none of us do.
But, God does. Walk with Him.
Something We Are Loving Right Now!
I really enjoy essential oils. I love wearing them in place of perfume, using them to clean my house, adding them to spray bottles to freshen up a room or the furniture, and diffusing them throughout the day. For Christmas, my mother in law gave me the YL blend Peace and Calming. It instantly became my new favorite. However, it is quite expensive and apparently is hard to order because it is in high demand so it sells out quickly. Fortunately, I found a DIY recipe and it comes very close to the real blend!
Here is the recipe. You can put the blend in an EO bottle that is gone or you can purchase empty dark glass EO bottles. I just LOVE it and thought you might too...enjoy!
25 drops Orange Essential Oil
25 drops Tangerine Essential Oil
15 drops Ylang Ylang Essential Oil
10 drops Patchouli Essential Oil
2 drops Blue Tansy Oil
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