Polly House
Baptist Press
Have you heard about the latest epidemic? Signs of it can be found everywhere.
“Man, I never seem to get everything done these days.”
“I know we need to get together, but there never is enough
time.”
Have you heard about the latest epidemic? Signs of it can be found everywhere.
“Man, I never seem to get everything done these days.”
“I know we need to get together, but there never is enough
time.”
“I figured out that between the cell phone, beeper, e-mail
and regular telephone, Im never ever alone.”
As even casual observation reveals, there is an epidemic of
“hurry sickness” in todays run-as-fast-as-you-can world, John Tadlock
emphasized recently.
“Everyone is busy,” said Tadlock, collegiate ministries group
leader with the Baptist General Association of Virginia. “Everyone uses the
words, There arent enough hours in a day. ”
However, the truth is that days have the same number of hours
they always have, Tadlock noted during a recent Southern Baptist conference
in Glorieta, N.M.
The truth is that “hurry sickness” is spreading like wildfire.
Hurry sickness is “the continuous struggle to participate in
more and more events in less and less time, frequently in the face of opposition
of other people,” Tadlock said.
“We have faxes, e-mails, voice mail, pay at the pump and microwaves
– all this stuff designed to take less time so we will have more time.
But, you know, it doesnt work that way,” he explained.
Thirty-four years ago, some members of Congress predicted that
one of the main turn-of-the-century problems in the United States would be what
people would do with all their spare time, Tadlock noted.
With all the “new” time-saving devices, the United states work
week would be cut to about 30 hours, they predicted.
“Now, tell me, how many of you have all that spare time?” Tadlock
asked conference participants. “You may have hurry sickness if you are constantly
speeding up the pace of your daily activities.
“If you are approaching a stop light, and you judge which lane
to get in based on the make and model of the cars already there, you probably
have hurry sickness. If you choose a lane at Wal-Mart based not only the number
of people in the lane but by doing a mental tabulation of the number of items
they have in their carts, you probably have hurry sickness,” Tadlock said.
“But you know you have a bad case if you even keep track of
the people in the other lanes and you calculate if they are moving more quickly
than you are, and you are upset if they get through their lane before you do.”
A second symptom of hurry sickness is becoming “polyphasic,”
when a person always is trying to do more than one thing at a time, Tadlock
continued.
“Youre never satisfied with how much you are accomplishing,
are you?” he asked. “Youre always doing at least two things simultaneously
– talking on the phone and typing on the computer, reading a book and watching
television.
“Oh, and driving your car … what all do we do while we are
driving? Put on make-up, talk on a cell phone, shave, comb our hair, eat breakfast,
change CDs in the player. Does this sound familiar?
“And the classic – think about it. Do you have magazines
or books in your bathroom?” he asked the group.
Tadlock warned there is a spiritual danger when people become
polyphasic in their prayer life. “How many of you have your prayer time when
you are driving the car or when you are in the shower?”
Contrary to popular opinion, Tadlock cited studies showing
that increases in stimulation of the brain do not cause it to function better.
“The brain actually starts to shut down when you do several things at once,”
he explained. “We arent functioning better as we get busier.”
A third symptom of hurry sickness is clutter, Tadlock reminded
persons.
“Our lives have too much clutter. We lack simplicity. Our culture
doesnt let us simplify well. We have too many dates on our calendar. We
have too much stuff.”
Before one dismisses “hurry sickness” as just a necessary condition
of the time, consider the spiritual impact cited by Tadlock. Indeed, “hurry
sickness” causes people to become superficial and destroys a Christians
intimacy with God, he said.
“When we are intimate with God, the rest of our life will be
in order; we operate more effectively,” Tadlock said. “Hurry crowds out significant
relationships. It crowds out prayer. We use words to keep us from listening
to God. To listen, you have to be still and quiet. The importance of listening
to God cannot be overstated.”
Busyness also erodes a persons capacity to love, Tadlock
warned.
“We lose the capacity to love God and others,” he said. “Hurry
and love are fundamentally opposed.”
Another danger of constant activity is getting addicted to
hurry, Tadlock added. “We live in such a state of adrenaline arousal that we
cant slow down.”
So, what can be done?
“We have to ruthlessly delete hurry from our lives,” Tadlock
stressed. “The opposite of hurry isnt slow. The opposite of hurry is rest.
God wants us to understand the importance of rest, of sleep.”
Those in religious circles often say they would rather “burn
out than rust out,” Tadlock acknowledged.
“(But), people, either way, youre out,” he reminded persons.
“Maybe the most spiritual thing you can do tonight is to get a good nights
sleep,” Tadlock counseled. “You cant be loving to anyone if youre
tired. Sleep is a spiritual act that may bring you closer to God. You cant
pursue life and God without it.” (BP)