“Why am I in such a rush to become somebody I don’t even like?” – John Mark Comer
A college campus is a colossal-sized hive filled with worker bees. The more involved you are, the better your reputation. This leads to a map of color on Google calendars, planned down to the minute. The currency of self-worth is how busy we are. This has plagued the minds of students, creating a buzz of avoidable stress on campus. The days seem to go by slow even though life continues to move at the pace of lightning.
Apparently the desire to feel busy doesn’t disappear during the transition to adulthood.
John Mark Comer lived in a fast-paced life where every moment was weighed down by the public eye. His book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” brings light to a normally hidden life in society—the pastor of a megachurch.
The book can best be described as scattered and honest. The paragraphs are filled with choppy sentences that represent the way of the mind. A person’s inner thoughts are not perfectly edited and always worded in a beautiful way, exposing the truths of what it means to lead a church of any size. It turns out Pastors, even of a megachurch, have spiraling minds. This is a freeing thought in a spinning world.
John Mark Comer has authored other books, but none like this. His other publications pave the way for Christians trying to navigate a modern world, like the well known book, “Loveology”. The pages of this book are a glimpse into his own life, a vulnerable feat for someone who has been in the public eye for so long.
The prologue alone captures the essence of the book with a series of fast moments strung together by raw emotion.
“Emotionally I live with an undercurrent of a nonstop anxiety that rarely goes away, and a tinge of sadness, but mostly I just feel blaaah spiritually… empty. It’s like my soul is hollow.”
As a college student trying to map out my entire life, this hits hard.
“It hit me like a freight train: In America you can be a success as a pastor and a failure as an apprentice of Jesus; you can gain a church and lose your soul.”
His entire thought process from anxiety leading to resigning from Bridgetown Church in Portland Oregon is thoroughly reported in this book.
Okay, the reader knows that even though the exterior of John Comer might look like a successful, spirit lead human. In reality, he is crumbling apart on the inside. So what’s the next step for him after resignation?
Slowing down to almost a halt.
Comer has a workbook that accompanies “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” that is supposed to tangibly launch an individual to a simpler life.
“As much as I love reading and writing, ideas are just the beginning. Unless they move from our mind into our body, they don’t become reality”
The basic foundations behind his learning process include: Silence and Solitude, Sabbath, Simplicity and slowing.
John Mark Comer has learned the hard way some of the key successes to life. Let’s follow suit and slow down.
The Beat @APU 