The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

The book in three sentences:

Busyness, distraction and restlessness are the major blocks within our spiritual life. The secret isn’t more time, but to adopt a “slower, simpler” lifestyle modeled by Jesus. The hallmarks of this lifestyle are practicing silence and solitude, sabbath, simplicity and slowing.

Big Ideas:

1. Technological and economic progress does not equal human progress
2. Signs that something is wrong (oh boy, I could relate to all of these!)
   • We get flustered when we encounter any type of delay.
   • When you actually try and slow down, you are unable to relax.
   • You give the Sabbath a try and hate it, you read scripture but find it boring. You have quiet time but can’t focus your mind, You go to bed early but toss and turn with anxiety. You watch TV but simultaneously check your phone.
   • Your drugs of choice are accomplishment and accumulation….you fall prey to “sunset fatigue” where by days end you have nothing left to give to your spouse and kids and they get the grouchy, curt overtired you, and it’s not pretty.
   • You don’t have time for the basics: eight hours of sleep a night, daily exercise, healthy home-cooked food, minimal stimulants, margin.
   • You regularly wake up tired, don’t sleep well, live of off the four horsemen of the industrialized food apocalypse: caffeine, sugar, processed carbs and alcohol
3. We achieve inner peace when our schedule is aligned with our values.
4. ….in the chronic problem of human beings felt experience of distance from God, God isn’t the culprit. God is omnipresent…our awareness of God is the problem and it’s acute.
5. No matter how much we do, eat, buy, drink, experience, we always want more. The result is restlessness. Keeping the Sabbath is a practice from the life of Jesus to combat this. The Sabbath is like the governor on the speed of life.
6. Everything you buy costs not just money but time. Most of us have too much stuff to life a healthy, unhurried pace.
7. Your life is the sum of what you give your attention to.
8. Life is a series of choices. Every yes is a thousand nos.
9. The Sabbath is a means to get free from demonic spirit to do more, get more, be more – the spirit of restlessness that enslaves our society.

Things to implement

1. Practice regular silence and solitude
2. Take the Sabbath seriously.
3. Make my iPhone “distraction-free”
4. Create a bed-time for my phone
5. Pair down my closet (10 outfits!)
6. Have a monthly one-day get-away.