Hurry, Hurry, Hurry
At the Harvey house we are in the middle of baseball season. This year I am coaching our son’s team, and two of my favorite things to shout on the ball field are “hustle” and “don’t be last.” Why you might ask? Honestly, it is mostly because I heard my coaches offer similar admonitions. It seems to me that hurry holds a kind of cultural cache in our time and place. For example, when we meet a person hustling through life we complement them as driven, motivated, or ambitious. However, while reading Proverbs 19 this week I was struck by the Sage’s warning.
In verse 2 Solomon warns, “Whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.” This proverb should align with our personal experience. We forget our lunch on the counter because we sprint out the door to work or school. We make a mistake on our homework assignment because we procrastinate and complete it at the last possible minute. This is all true of course, but the proverb speaks beyond simple lapses of memory and time management. The Proverbs warn regularly of the dangers of hurry (14:29; 20:21; 21:5; 28:20; 29:20). Taken all together it appears that a life of hurry leads to cosmic folly.
Psalm 78:17-43 also reflects on the folly of hurry. The Psalmist meditates on Israel’s impatient journey through the wilderness and the tragedy of their relentless hustle. “Yet they sinned still more against him,” the Psalmist recalls, “rebelling agains the Most High in the desert. They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved” (v. 17-18). In the end, “They did not remember His power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe, when he performed His signs in Egypt and His marvels in the fields of Zoan” (v. 42-43). In this instance, hurry is framed as a demanding and dismissive posture toward God. Hustle wants it now ignoring God in the process.
Standing in stark contrast to the philosophy of haste is Jesus. In chapter four of his gospel, Luke describes the time when Jesus was tempted by Satan to hurry out of the wilderness. Luke explains that “[Jesus] was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, eating nothing during those days” (v. 1-2). Satan tempts Jesus with the immediate offer of relief (v. 3), authority (v. 6), and recognition (v. 9-11). Jesus never yielded, never sinned. At each offer he, the Son of God, remains faithful to God the Father in the power of the Spirit (v. 1, 4, 8, 12). For Jesus, God is his daily bread, source of power, and place of intimacy. By rejecting Satan’s offer Jesus walked openly into the looming shadow of the cross.
Jesus patiently endured the suffering of the cross for us, who in our maniacal living, dismiss the Lord of Life, and he was raised to deliver us from the tyranny of living like a shadow chasing the sun. If we will quietly and prayerfully walk with Jesus, who is the Face of God, we will slowly learn that God is the life that we’re hustling for. Hurry in this life will become less and less necessary as we live eternal life.
