Recently, I have spent more time praying and pondering how to slow down. When Paul tells Timothy and the church in Ephesus to pray for “for kings and all who are in high positions,” he tells them to do this so that “we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Timothy 2:2) Do the words peaceful, quiet, godly, and dignified characterize most of the people around me? Do they characterize me?
I just read a post from a former professor of mine, Benjamin Myers, on this topic. Dr. Myers shared this thought, “I’ve got to get back to a walking pace. I’m losing so much time by going fast.”
In our fast-paced world, we lose meaningful time by going too fast and saying yes to too much. We make memories in the slow moments with our family and friends. We enjoy life when it isn’t crashing around us from all sides.
Sometimes we have to slow down to get to Godspeed. God doesn’t have to work in seconds or minutes. He can work in centuries and millennia. As Peter writes, “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). We often overestimate what we can accomplish in one year and underestimate what God can accomplish in ten.
You actually can’t achieve much in a sixteen or eighteen-hour day. You can chisel away at big projects and get some small tasks done, but the big accomplishments come from daily faithfulness.
Where are we investing our time? As this new year begins, my heart longs for the simple, beautiful gifts in life: family, church, friends, fun games, nourishing meals, time in nature, captivating books, constant prayer, mornings in Scripture, and journaling my thoughts. What does a richer life look like for you? How could you use your next sixteen hours and the sixteen hours after that to honor God with the life that he has given you?
In the end, we are dust, and to dust we shall return. All that’s left is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Chandler Warren 