Unhurried Living | Helping Christians Rest Deeper & Lead Better

Today is number three in a series where we are sharing answers to our survey question: “What is the biggest challenge you face right now in living a more unhurried life?” This week, we’re talking about “Distractions and Soul Busyness.” Let’s take a look a look at five of the questions that came up within this theme to see if we can find a little more freedom in our everyday lives. 1 - The internet and social media can eat up my time so quickly. How do I tame the beast? 2 - How do I say "no" to being busy? 3 - How do I break long established habits of "busy"? 4 - I'm bombarded with too much information to process. I make time each morning for prayer and focus on God, but am often too tired to feel alert and to really benefit. 5 - I want to focus this year on living a less distracted life. How do I do that? As you’ll see, over the course of our conversation, we can remember that our life is not out there somewhere waiting for us to grab it. My life is right here where I am, right here where God is present. As a reminder, we have an online course that can help you as you make some space to be in God’s presence. Alan has created 10 meditations on various Psalms. In the course, he’ll guide you into prayer as he reads the Psalm and gives you space to live into what it says. Enroll today in Encountering God in Scripture. There is a one Psalm, free version as well as a paid version with 10 Psalms. GO TO COURSE Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Thank you for joining us today. Over the course of our first few episode of the new year, we are sharing answers to our poll question: “What is the biggest challenge you face right now in living a more unhurried life?” This is the second podcast in that series. Last week, we talked about “Nine Practical Challenges to Living Less Hurried.” This week, we’re talking about “Dealing with Workplace Stress.” Your primary workplace may be a corporate office, a home office, a retail business, a classroom, maybe even your home. The difference between this episode and last week’s is fairly simple: Last week we talked about challenges to unhurrying our lives that rise from within us. This week, we’re talking about challenges that arise from around us. These challenges come from the expectations of others, or the pattern of the culture in which we work and live. Be sure to visit us on our website. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Last year we polled our community and asked them a key question: “What is the biggest challenge you face right now in living a more unhurried life?” Very simple. Very practical. We got some great responses. We arranged the responses into five categories which will be the theme of some of our upcoming episodes. Those themes are:  Practical Challenges to Living Less Hurried  Dealing with Workplace Stress  Inner Distractions & Soul Busyness  Keeping First Things First  Noticing God in My Busy Life So that’s why today’s episode is titled “Nine Practical Challenges to Living Less Hurried.” Specifically, these are challenges that arise from within us. They are personal challenges and places of inward wrestling. Maybe you’ll see one of your struggles below. Listen in to see what we have to say about each one. Challenge #1 - Believing that rest and quiet is OK, maybe even good. Challenge #2 - My belief that I am what I do. This keeps me from focusing on who I am becoming. Challenge #3 - Developing self-discipline and self-confidence to live an unhurried life. Challenge #4 - Learning to be patient with myself and trusting Jesus to lead me into an unhurried life that reflects how he lived. Challenge #5 - Overcoming my guilt when I feel like I’m producing less because I slowed down. Challenge #6 - The anxiety I feel in uncertain situations. Challenge #7 - My preference for multi-tasking rather than doing one thing at a time. Challenge #8 - Knowing how to find quiet for my mind and heart and making contemplative time with God. Challenge #9 - My fear of looking inward. I stay busy to avoid my issues. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

The Welcoming Prayer is a process that you can use on the go. It is useful for times when something comes up that makes you feel sad, hurt, or stressed. Sometimes, in the middle of a busy day, we don’t have time to address all of the emotions that come up. But we may notice here and there that an emotion is quite loud. We need a way to deal with it and continue on in our tasks or work. In just a few minutes, you can let the emotion come up and at the same time become aware of God’s presence. Then you can let it pass, and be on its way. You don’t need to argue with yourself or put up a defense. You can simply let go. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Great news - I have found a way to reduce much of the stress in my life. Actually, let me re-phrase that: A way to reduce much of the stress in my life found me. I wasn’t looking for this stress reducer, but it hit me like an 18-wheeler and set me on a new path. Much of the stress in my life is caused by my expectations, as well as my trying to control situations so they turn out the way I think they should. This happens consciously and unconsciously. Lovely. I want to address just one idea that may help ease any tension that may arise as you get together with others. And this is the cool part. It is not about them. This is something you can choose to do for yourself. And it may help you achieve peace even in the midst of what can be a busy season. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Well here we are in December. The Thanksgiving holiday is behind us and the Advent and Christmas season lies ahead. We hear the songs that are calling this the most wonderful time of the year, but it can sometimes feel like the busiest and most hurried time of the year. There are just so many details to solve, so many social gatherings, so many responsibilities. We can end up feeling so rushed that we’re unable to settle into the good news that this season is all about. And what is it all about? Jesus has come to be “God with us.” Immanuel. In my hurry, I forget that God is always with me thanks to the gift of Jesus’ life and the empowering presence of God’s Spirit helping me experience his presence. So, as a way to help us enter into this “God-with-us” reality, I want to share some thoughts about how to unhurry our holidays. A few years ago, when An Unhurried Life was published, I contributed to an article for the Christian post titled “Top 10 Ways to Have an Unhurried Christmas Season.” I’m going to take some time here to unpack those 10 ways in this episode. Now these suggestions are not meant to add a whole lot more tasks to your already-too-long holiday to do list. I’m hoping instead that you’ll find one or two of these ideas to be a way to approach this holiday season from a different spirit—with a more unhurried, relaxed, and peaceful heart. Our Ten Ways to Unhurry Your Holidays Summarized: Enjoy a few sips of your morning coffee or tea for five minutes without doing anything other than enjoying the moment. Take an evening walk in your neighborhood and enjoy the decorations that may be up. Make it a stroll. Feel the crisp air on your face. Engage all of your senses. As you are preparing to buy a gift for someone, slow down enough to ask yourself, "What would they enjoy? What would bless them, encourage them, enrich them, help them?" See if you can resist the temptation to make gift purchasing an exercise in efficiency, but rather an offering of love. Slow down enough to look a salesperson in the eye and thank them for their help. Bless them in the midst of what is a likely a very frantic season for them. Give yourself the gift of one morning to wake up without an alarm clock going off. Take a moment at the end of a day to think back over it. What are you grateful for? Say thanks. What was hard? Ask for help. What do you wish you did differently? Ask for forgiveness. Take the opportunity to spend a little time with someone whose needs are greater than yours. The needs might be financial, emotional, physical, etc. At a Christmas party or holiday gathering, be more present to others by listening well to what they are sharing. Ask questions that express interest and care. Take a moment to read the story about the birth of Jesus (Lk 2:1-21). The prophet Isaiah described Jesus as a child who would be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Which of these names hits closest to home for you? Carry it with you through this holiday season. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

The ultimate reality is that we are loved by God, just as we are and as he made us (our true self). However, as we grow up, and over time, we begin to construct a false self. The false self is who we wish we were. It is the person we want others to think we are. We compensate for a world that is not what we thought it would be. Over time, we begin to believe the false self is actually us. But we grow tired under the weight of that mask. We need a way to come back to the true self and become more free. The Enneagram is a tool that helps us make our way into that process. Many times a day we move from true to false and back to true again. It is an ongoing process. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

In this episode, we are talking about pain and loss. It is an inevitable part of all of our lives. We want to try to give some perspective on pain and how it can actually be viewed as a grace. If you are in the middle of deep pain right now, I’m sure that the word “grace” is not on the tip of your tongue. We are so sorry that you are so heavy and burdened right now. We hope you can hear this and tuck it away for a day when the pain or trial has subsided. Or maybe it will help give perspective in the midst. That would be our hope. You’ll see, in the stories we share today, that we have been through our own times of pain…trial…suffering…whatever you want to call it…difficult circumstances. We all go through times like this. Some of what we share today is from Alan’s book, An Unhurried Life, in a chapter titled, “Suffering: Unexpected Unhurrying.” One of the first books that Elton Trueblood wrote was titled, “The Essence of Spiritual Religion.” You can think of Trueblood as sort of the “Dallas Willard” of the early and middle part of last century. Listen to what he says along the lines of our theme today: “We know persons who have had new insights into the richness of life after the death of a much-loved child. We know many who have been struck by a loathsome disease and yet have so lived through the misery that the very disease has become an instrument of God’s grace. That is another way of saying it has become a sacrament. It is our task to oppose evil, but God, by His great mercy, is clearly able to lead us on to new heights by means of evil experiences if we are willing to open our lives to the divine influence. There is, then, a very deep sense in which anything at all can become an instrument for the enhancement of the life of the spirit.” Anything that has happened in our lives, no matter how hurtful or even evil, can actually become prayer when we bring it to God. God can work in absolutely any situation to redeem, to heal, to restore, to “grace” our lives. It’s our hope that you might find your way to bringing everything in your life, and especially those hurtful and broken places in your story into the presence of God’s grace. Be honest about how it hurts. See Jesus and his empathy for you as he himself suffers on the cross out of love for you and me. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Alan and Gem discuss developing a personal rhythm of life. It’s a practice they both have worked on over the years in their own spiritual journeys. In fact, the ideas shared grow out of a training piece Alan has shared with hundreds of leaders over the years. It’s one of the ways we can rise up out of the hurried and compacted world in which we live into a place of greater perspective and freedom. That’s always one of the ironies of freedom: It is not really something you can pursue directly. Freedom is the indirect fruit of discipline. We give examples of the Rhythms of Life of William Wilberforce, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. And we’ll even share a brief version of our own Rhythms of Life. And we end with some great questions you can ask yourself as you create your own Rhythm of Life. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

Alan Fadling talks with James Bryan Smith about his latest book, The Magnificent Story. We unpack what it means that the gospel of Jesus is good, beautiful and true here and now, not just someday. James Bryan Smith is the author of the trilogy: The Good and Beautiful God, The Good and Beautiful Life, and The Good and Beautiful Community. He is a theology professor at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. He also serves as the director of the Apprentice Institute for Christian Spiritual Formation at Friends University. A founding member of Richard Foster's spiritual renewal ministry, Renovaré, Smith is an ordained United Methodist Church minister and has served in various capacities in local churches. His recent book is The Magnificent Story. Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.