Nicole’s e-Pistle “The Elimination of Hurry”

September 2, 2026

Greetings, Friends!

As most of you are aware, our family is getting closer to a medical procedure that will be performed next week. Due to the public nature of these e-Pistles, I will not publish anything specific here, but I will be sending out another email to our members and regular attenders soon. If you are not on that email list and would like to receive notifications that pertain more specifically to our congregation, please contact the church office.

What I can share here, is that any time we go through a major life event, it forces us to take stock of what truly matters. We have no choice – for sanity’s sake – but to make priorities and to let go of the things we cannot fit in to our daily, weekly, and monthly routines. These are often very hard choices to make for overachievers whose general existence includes adding more to one’s plate, rather than taking things off. So, I did what I typically do in situations where I begin to feel out of control… I bought another book. (Anyone who has stepped foot in my office knows what a collector of books I am. You can just imagine how my house looks!)

This book is called, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” by John Mark Comer. I confess I cannot remember exactly who suggested this title to me, but I feel very confident it was someone I shook hands with after worship or was in a team meeting with. Whatever the case, I took your suggestion to heart, and I have started reading it. I also, as is my habit, did research on the author.

As with anything, I see religious differences and political views as a spectrum, rather than a binary. There isn’t left and right, but an entire spectrum of belief. For example, in Christianity, we most often talk about conservative or progressive Christians, and for the most part, our denomination and our congregation fall into the progressive side. In an interview with John Mark Comer on progressive Christianity… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mOhD4y7AV4&t=109s… he categorized himself as having been raised in the far-right conservative style of Christianity. He has since left that branch, but he also says that the far-left “kills church,” and specifically named Rob Bell as one who is a brilliant thinker and teacher, but who does not (at least in Comer’s mind) preach the divine nature of Jesus Christ as Savior. Comer said that he thinks of himself as a kind of category C, which in his words, “still takes the Bible very seriously as Scripture, but also as literature, and is open to hard conversations and the nuance of reading the Bible in context and all of that, but is at the end of the day still really serious about following the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth and the claim that he is Lord.”

I wish we did not live in a world that was so divided. I wish that my first instinct when trying to read anything on Christianity wasn’t to try to place the author on the spectrum of doctrine and theological belief. Yet, here we are. In my “hurry” to read a book on the elimination of hurry, I find myself hurrying through my research, skimming through the pages of the book for key words and phrases that hint at his beliefs, all so I can hurry through writing this e-Pistle before my parents leave for Florida and then miss my Housing Coalition meeting, so I can make it to the Ladies’ Luncheon at 11:30…

All you who are weary, indeed.

There is a part of me that thinks I am the only one that feels this way, or that my hurry is situational. I find myself saying things like, “when life calms down, we can get together sometime.” Yet, I know I am not alone. I hear similar comments from many of you – and not just the parents of young children, though every one of them falls into this category. I have heard those of you who are retired say that you feel busier now than when you had a full-time job. Life’s demands do not stop for anything, especially in our society. In his introduction, Comer told a story of a British colonial in Africa who spent a long day hiking through the jungle with his guides. The next morning, he awoke expecting to begin the next long stretch through the jungle. His guides refused, saying they needed to give their souls time to catch up. Comer later quoted a Korean-born German philosopher named Byung-Chul Han who said of the Western world, “They are too alive to die, and too dead to live.”

Come to me, and you will find rest.

Wherever you fall on the spectrum of Christian belief or theology, I hope you will agree that Jesus provides us with an example to follow, offers us an invitation to commune with him, and covers us with grace so that we may live in this life and the next. In our branch of the spectrum, we believe that God always acts first. It is we who respond to his grace and peace by trying to emulate his Son, loving God and loving people.

May we each find a way to rest in Christ. May we set aside our busy schedules for a while each day to commune with him, and as we sit in the peace of his presence, may we give our souls time to catch up.

Blessings and peace, my friends!