Sunday, November 18, 2018

An Unhurried Life (Alan Fadling)


Our lives are too crazy; we're always in a hurry, and Alan Fadling argues that we need silence, solitude, and listening.  Looking at the life of Jesus- who worked deliberate periods of solitude into His demanding schedule- Fadling looks at an unhurried life from several angles:
- unhurried apprenticeship
- productivity and the difference between laziness and 'unhurriedness'
- temptation
- caring and praying in an unhurried manner
- rest and its rhythms in creation
- suffering and maturity and their relation to time
- spiritual practices

This was a good read; the author makes many good points.  It's easy for me to fall into the busyness trap in the modern era- with instant communication, attention spans are shriveling, fast is normal, and stress is rising.  We need to remember that, looking at Scripture, "there is a surprising amount of nonwork space God builds into the weekly, monthly, annual and lifetime rhythms of his people."  And why?  In part because "maturity is the fruit of a long and focused journey toward realizing that everything good can only be truly enjoyed in the only One who is truly good."  And, in part, requires rest, reflection, and prayer.  Otherwise, the author "continue[s] to see evidence that our hurry, rather than getting more done, often gets the wrong thing done- and a lot of it!"

Rating: A

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