Recently I was reading through some notes that I took last year when Leslie Vernick came to speak at America’s Keswick, and I was reminded of her fantastic teaching that weekend. I wanted to pass along this tidbit because I think many of us struggle with the hectic busy pace of our lives. We live with a full plate, packed schedules and very little down time.

Any misrepresentation of what Leslie shared in November is entirely my fault – I am sharing from my own notes of her message.

Slow down – we must learn to slow down. We believe the lie that if we are really busy we must be dong something important – maybe even BE important.

Maybe the lie we believe is that the busier I am at church the godlier I am.

Chronic busyness is a mark of self-importance.

I think some of us need to read that again. Chronic busyness is a mark of self-importance.

People who slow us down become our enemy.

We thing that if we are busy we have a meaningful life but that is just an illusion.

Leslie offered these practical steps:
1. Refuse to hurry. Live with a margin. When I hurry through my day, I am bowing to the god of productivity.
2. Learn to savor the moment. Be present. That requires that we are not thinking about the last thing, the next thing or the possible thing.
3. Each day God brings beauty and meaning into my life. Am I taking time to notice?

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God Ps 42:1

Presence is more important to God than productivity.

Blessings, Diane

Diane Hunt is part of the Development and Addiction Recovery teams at America’s Keswick. In addition to being a Biblical Counselor, she is a Women’s speaker for retreats, conferences and events. She is a regular writer for Victory Call and one of the authors of Crossing the Jordan Bible Study. She has been married to her husband John over 28 years. She has 2 adult children, 4 grandchildren, 3 adult step-children with 7 grandchildren making 10 in all. She delights reading and teaching, but mostly laughing at the funny things her grandchildren say and do.