Let’s begin with a disclaimer. The Baker household has experienced anything but a grace-paced life in recent months.

Prepping our hundred-year-old home to sell has taken on a life of itself. By the time this post goes live the house should finally be on the market.

Perhaps it’s because of the chaotic nature of life that I was immediately drawn to Alan Fadling’s, “An Unhurried Life…Following Jesus’ Rhythms of Work and Rest” highlighted on Emily P. Freeman’s site. Or it could be that at the core of my very being I desire above all else to be more like Jesus in both rest and play.

In An Unhurried Life, there are eleven chapters highlighting topics such as productivity, temptation, caring, praying, resting, suffering, maturing and spiritual practices. Today, I’m sharing two fistfuls of favorite excerpts…and I’m only on page 46. {I wanted to rev up my reading skills so I could finish the book in its entirety before posting.} Yep, this book was written for me. Maybe you’ll see hints of your own hurry below.

Ready to be inspired? Here are my top ten quotes of An Unhurried Life (so far).

• Told to John Ortberg during a transition in his ministry life: “You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”
• “Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.”
• “I feel hurried inside even when nothing actually urgent is on my schedule. Hurry has become a habit: I find myself stuck in emergency mode.”
• “I realize that an unhurried life is not a lazy life. In fact, it can be the exact opposite. Jesus was unhurried, but he was not lazy He was engaged, hardworking, purposeful, and conscientious.”
• “I’m aware that God’s great commandment to us isn’t ‘Get more things done,’ but to love him with the whole of our energies, capacities, and passions to extend that love to others. And love isn’t rushed.”
• “God is never in a hurry.”
• “Being unhurried does not mean being unresponsive to divine nudges. Being unhurried enables us to notice those nudges and to respond.”
• “I don’t think I’ll find my deepest joy in the number of people who liked something I said or did. I’m coming to believe that my greatest joy will be being part of an extended community of men and women with whom I’ve shared a journey with Jesus, living out his life in our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces and schools, and the church communities where God has planted us.”
• “Despite Jesus’ example, I find it a continual temptation to do things that will get a lot of people excited about what I’m doing⎯and get them excited now!”
• “Do our conversations about ministry revolve around growing numbers of participants, successful programs or other easily measured outcomes? Or do we tell stories about particular people who are responding to Jesus, stories of seeds of gospel truth sown in people’s hearts that will grow into the fruit of Christlikeness?”

Now that’s a lot of unhurried goodness. Wouldn’t you agree?

All the above quotes struck a chord in me but the second one pressed in a little deeper. A disordered heart? I know it’s true. I also know I can’t wait until life settles down to take it before the Lord and wrestle through the necessary changes.

A grace-paced life can be embraced even when everything else feels like it’s falling apart.

Did a particular quote speak to you? I’d love for you to share it in the comment section if so. We hurried-prone peeps need to know we’re not alone.

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