A Silent Killer Sunday, June 23, 2013 Pastor Larry Schram Mark 1:35-39 Most of us are probably familiar with the so called Silent Killers medical conditions that don t make their presence obvious but which can in fact kill us. Things like Hypertension and certain types of Cancer for instance can be actively present, destroying our health and potentially setting us up for death. What makes them particularly deadly is that they are silent they don t make their presence obvious until it is too late. There is another disease that is actively present in our culture right now that is also a silent killer. It is very prevalent in many lives and it is called hurry sickness. It is so prevalent that many of us see it as normal and as such don t feel it is anything to worry about. Just as a few decades ago hypertension was seen as not only normal but a good thing to give you energy for the demands of life, likewise hurry sickness is seen by many as the evidence of a meaningful and well lived life. Yet hurry sickness, like hypertension, is a killer. It kills many things including our relationships, productivity, perspective and the work of God in our souls. Hurry sickness may be normative in our world but it is deadly to the work of God and actually keeps us from having a well lived life. Hurry sickness has a number of different definitions attached to it. Here is one of my favorites: Hurry sickness is a pattern of behavior rooted in an overwhelming and continual state of urgency. As such it reveals its presence in a pattern of rushing and anxiety. The keys words in this definition are the phrase an overwhelming and continual state of urgency. That is exactly how many of us live; awaking each day with a sense of urgency and ending each day with a heightened sense of urgency. As such, we can rarely slow down enough to truly engage the people around us or
even embrace the God moments that come our way. Hurry sickness drives us to rush on to the next task and make sure we are ready for the next activity. It keeps us from building healthy relationships, distorts our perspective and is toxic to the disciplines of spiritual formation. Hurry sickness kills many things in our lives. How do you know if you have it? Well the definition itself helps us to understand its most dominant characteristics. Do you frequently feel rushed, anxious and overwhelmed? Do you find yourself irritated at people who drive under the speed limit? Are you distracted by so many things you cannot concentrate on any one thing? Are you so rushed that you cannot read your Bible, pray or play with a child? If you have children, do you try to hurry them along by making a game out of how fast they can get ready for bed or have a meal? Do you calculate how fast the check out lines are moving and do you get irritated if the line you choose slows down for any reason whatsoever? If these things are true in your life.you have hurry sickness. My best guess is that you are in good company and that all of us have it in one form or another. In fact, it is so common that many of us would consider those who don t have its symptoms to be lazy and unproductive. Which raises an interesting question: If it is that normative, is the situation really that bad? Is it in fact really a silent killer or is it just an occupational hazard of living? If hurry sickness is everywhere, affecting everyone, can it really be that bad? Yes. It can be that bad and it is causing a lot of damage in a lot of lives. Left undetected, hurry sickness undermines and eventually destroys our ability to love. It reduces all relationships to productivity and personal advantage and it is the root source of the phrase many of us are familiar with: So what have you done for me lately? Hurry sickness will convince us that we don t need to prioritize a relationship with God because that takes time. In one form, hurry sickness will never allow us to prioritize church, small group, service or giving because those things will take time, money and energy away from our self centered sense of urgency. In another form, hurry sickness is what leads people
to over-commit and is one of the root causes of emotional and spiritual burnout. Hurry sickness is what causes many church leaders, including pastors to try to do it all, be it all and have it all, now. It is a contributing factor to why 1,500 pastors leave the ministry every month in Canada and the US. Hurry sickness will leave you with the regret of a lifetime of missed moments and it will shrivel your soul. It will hurt your family, undermine your marriage and leave you wondering if your life has amounted to anything significant. When hurry sickness has taken root in your life, nothing is ever done and there is never a sense of completion or rest. At the end of each day, all you have left is a deep sense of the need to hurry. It is a silent killer. Medical professionals can help us overcome many of the silent killers that plague our lives and I am grateful for their insights and advice. With this particular silent killer however I think we need to look to the one who never succumbed to its presence. If anyone had the right to justify a life of hurriedness it was Jesus. His was the ultimate purpose-driven life and he was operating under a very limited window of time. He should have been in a rush to get things done, yet there is no evidence of Jesus ever rushing anywhere. He was never hurried and in fact did many things that countered the advice given in many best selling books that detail a life of productivity, efficiency and success. We are going to look at one story this morning to glean from it a few simple things that will help us to overcome the silent killer called hurry sickness. Let s look closer: Mark 1: 35-39- read the text Now the context of this passage is crucial to note. Jesus has just started his ministry and his success is off the charts. He has called his disciples (Mark 1:16-19), driven out demonic spirits (Mark 1:21-26), and healed many people (Mark 1:29-34). His life was busy, his ministry was successful and good things were happening. In fact it was so successful, people were beating a path to him. In business terms it couldn t be any better. In leadership terms, he was successful as the quintessential influencer. As a teacher, people were responding to his message and they wanted to hear more. In our day and age, consultants would be advising Jesus to work longer hours, get more staff, franchise the operation and
grow the ministry with strategic decisions. In other words: hurry, hurry, hurry or you will miss out on this time limited opportunity. What did Jesus do? None of those things. He responded to all of the hurry, urgency and success with a very clear pattern. His response was, in fact, the only cure for hurry sickness that I know of. In doing so he has shown us how to overcome the silent killer of hurry sickness that plagues us in 2013. Mark 1:35 says: Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. In that one verse we see some simple things that undermine the power of hurry sickness and in many ways inoculate us against the spread of this disease. 1. Seek times of silence and slowness. The phrase very early in the morning, while it was still dark is very helpful for us if we want to defeat hurry sickness. The Jewish way of measuring time began with the first hour of the day at 6 AM. By phrasing it this way Mark is telling us that Jesus was up before 6 AM and was seeking that quiet time when very few other people are up; when silence is normal; and when life is slow. That time of silence and slowness allowed Jesus to defeat the power of hurry sickness. It is a pattern that I believe many of us would benefit from. Silence and slowness is crucial for our spiritual health and when we practice them hurry is beaten back in our hearts and minds. Yet these two things are so non-normative in our culture many of us are actually afraid of them. Stop and consider: would you shop at a grocery store that advertized itself as: we deliberately slow you down? Would you purchase a new computer that claimed: slowing your life down one click at time? Likewise how many of us actually value silence? Do not many of us wear ear buds not to keep noise out but to pump our preferred noise in? Are not many of us actually uncomfortable with silence? Yet Jesus showed us that one of the key things we need to do to overcome hurriedness is the very thing that many of us struggle to value. It is no wonder
hurry sickness has become a silent killer silence and slowness are virtually nonexistent in our world. 2. Seek times of solitude The phrase solitary place is very indicative. Jesus didn t go to the crowds, he went away to be alone. That is something that more of us probably need to pursue if we want to defeat hurry sickness. Dallas Willard who writes extensively about the practices of spiritual formation has suggested that we need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. How do we do that? According to Willard we do it by being alone. Why is this so crucial? Solitude is the only place where we can gain freedom from the forces of society that relentlessly mold us. Perhaps that is why we see Jesus alone so often before he chose his disciples after the death of John the Baptist before he began his ministry his last night in the garden - all were alone times. Even more, he invited his followers to do likewise. In one story when life was crazy for the disciples we read these words: Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. (Mark 6:31) The disciples were pressured and their lives were hurried and what did Jesus advise them to do? Seek solitude and rest. Solitude puts many things in perspective and I encourage you to try it. It is a crucial part of my life as I attempt to drive back the hurry sickness that plagues me. 3. Seek times of prayer The slowness, silence and solitude were all important, but probably the most important part for Jesus was prayer. He needed to talk to God and hear God s voice, not the people s voices. The people came looking for him. They wanted more good stuff like miracles, healings and teaching. But because Jesus took the time to pray he knew what to do: Keep moving-spread the message-don t stay here in this successful place. He didn t allow hurry sickness to derail the plan God had for him. He prayed and knew what to do.do you?
You see love and hurry are essentially incompatible. We cannot love God or even the people in our lives, if we constantly hurry. John Ortberg makes the observation that hurry is a sign of a disordered heart.so is your heart ordered or disordered? Are you practicing slowness, silence, solitude and prayer so you can defeat the power of hurry sickness? I pray so, because the truth is this: you will either avoid hurry sickness or it will stop you because it is a silent killer. I ask you to imagine with me for just a moment the difference this can make in our world. Imagine a world where hurry sickness is defeated. Where we practice solitude and silence and can hear the voice of God. Imagine a life where we value people more then hurrying and where urgency is not the driving force of our lives. I am trying to imagine it and I hunger to do more than imagine it. I want to stop the silent killer of hurry sickness before it stops me. I believe Jesus has shown us how and I invite you to join me in slowing down and living with a heart of love and not a heart of hurry. All it takes is to follow the example of Jesus. Larry Schram June, 2013