Slowing Down to Be with Jesus

Prayer

Practicing the Way - Goal #1, To Be with Jesus, Part 2

So we’re continuing our series on Practicing the Way, learning to follow Jesus through spiritual formation. And as we’ve said, it comes down to three basic goals that we must organize our lives around - to be with Jesus, to become like Jesus, and to do the things he did. Last Sunday we spent time talking about the importance of that first goal, being with Jesus. That we must abide in him, make our homes in him, bringing our minds continually back to Jesus. Because this such an important goal, it all starts here, I want to spend more time this morning talking about what it requires to abide with Jesus, to be with him.

Exactly here, this goal, that we have great difficulty, because of the contemporary American lifestyle. And it’s a lifestyle that is radically different from the vast majority of how people have lived throughout history, and even how most of humanity across the globe live today. And that’s hard to fathom, because we’re so used to how we live, it seems to normal to us - doesn’t everyone live this way? In short, not at all.

Consider for a moment the lifestyle of the first disciples who responded to Jesus’ invitation to “Come, follow me,” and how they were with him. When they traveled with Jesus, that meant they would spend days walking alongside him on the road. Then they would often camp out, and all that entails, cooking meals over a fire, eating together. They would sit and listen when Jesus would preach to the crowds, when he would teach in the synagogues, over and over again.

The closest thing we might have is a campout, or a backpacking trip. Part of what makes those experiences so rich, is the amount of time you get to spend with the people you go with - because you’re with each other the whole time, no distractions. Setting up camp, sharing meals together. Hanging out around the campfire. Hours hiking on the trail.

A book I read a some time ago was one by Paul Stutzman called Hiking Through. Stutzman tells about his experience hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. Part of the reason he took the trip was to work through the grief of losing his wife to breast cancer. He was struggling, a lot, and he was struggling with God. But God in his grace met him on that trip. But here’s the great insight he had from how the Lord met him on that trip - that it was only when he slowed down and took the time that he heard from the Lord. As Stutzman put it, the Lord met him at three miles per hour.

One commenter said in his review on this book, “God must be experienced to be believed, which is why the Bible says, ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.’ (Psalm 34:8). That tasting is what Stutzman experienced out on the trail.”

These things speak to what makes being with Jesus especially challenging for us today. Because it is no exaggeration to say that we live in the must hurried, the most harried culture that has ever existed. We have a very different sense of time from the way most people throughout history have thought about time. Our sense of how quickly things should happen, how much we should be able to get done in a day. We divide and measure and often micromanage our time. This is true in virtually every area of our lives.

Eating meals - fast food or quick casual or door dash, it’s all about getting food quickly and conveniently. Drive by the numerous stores that offer drive through coffee in the morning (or heck, throughout the day) - cars there all the time. The fact that I know I can order something online and have it on my porch two days later. All these things impact our sense of how quickly things should happen. What is a normal pace of life.

This and so much more - how fast we can travel, get from place to place. Even how quickly we should be able to get medical attention (honestly, I was amazed last week at how quickly I got a doctor’s appointment and then an ultrasound, span of hours). Of course, that has just made the waiting for my leg to actually heal seem so much slower. Why we are society that takes so much prescription medication, vastly more that any other nation on earth - because all too often, taking a pill is the quick, easy solution.

By the way, if you think perhaps you’re immune to this, here’s my challenge. Make a point this week of, wherever you are, waiting in the longest line. At the grocery store, get behind that person whose cart is filled up - and then likely is going to write out a check, very slowly. Put yourself in a position where you have to wait.

This brings us to second great challenge that we face particularly in this modern, American lifestyle. And this will come as no surprise. Not only are we the most hurried culture ever, we are the most distracted culture ever. There is no end of the things that can preoccupy our time, our attention - and therefore our minds and hearts. Have to take seriously this challenge if we are going to organize our lives around being with Jesus.

And so we’re more mindful of all the things that can distract us, that can take up our time and attention, I want walk through just a fraction of the never-ending options before us. Start with this Fitbit that I wear every day, and the app it syncs with on my phone. If I so choose, beyond just checking the time, everyday I can monitor my steps, my mileage, my calorie intake - and how many calories I expend, how well I sleep every night, my heartrate, my active zone minutes, I can keep track of my water intake, how many hours of the day I’m active, and I’ve never looked into these, but apparently there are ways to set up glucose monitoring, “mindful days”, stress management score. Honestly, I’m getting stressed just going through the list. You could literally spend your days constantly monitoring and measuring on how you are doing on all these health metrics - which doesn’t seem that healthy to me, at least not for our souls.

That’s one device along with one app. Consider the millions of apps you could have on your phone - I have dozens on mine. The endless choice of social media apps (Facebook, X, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, just to name a few). Messaging apps (basic texting, What’s App, GroupMe), there’s apps that give you unlimited access to videos, podcasts, news sites, music, games - thousands of options in each of these.

Then you have streaming channels - Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, sports channels, Peacock, and on and on it goes. You get my point. This is all new, no other culture in history has ever dealt with so many options to distract us, to take up our time. Here’s the thing, it’s all by design. The manufacturers work to preoccupy your time. They want you to keep clicking on their app. They are masters of manipulation, of knowing the psychology of how we are wired and what will keep us scrolling and hitting another video and playing one more level of the game.

And you’ll quickly realize how much of a grip all these things have on us when you try to give them up, even for a little while. How quickly and consistently that urge comes to pick up that phone, that remote, to stave off the restlessness. And listen I haven’t even gone into all the other things that make up our lives - our jobs, household chores, yardwork, maintaining home - all the repairs that have to be made, our cars, dealing with insurance, taxes, managing our finances, family activities and responsibilities.

Here’s the thing - my point is not to say that all of this is bad, much of it is good (or can be good, in the right proportions), some of it is even wonderfully good. I’m simply trying to point out the great challenge that lies before us if we’re going to take seriously following Jesus, starting with being him. These things actively fight against us. They can - and do - consume our time and attention. We live in a culture that is desperately distracted - and terribly hurried. And both of these things are antithetical to life in Jesus. To abiding in him.

What We Must Do to Be with Jesus

And what we must do in order to abide in Jesus isn’t very complicated - but it is difficult, because it is so counter to how our culture lives. First thing is simply this, we must slow down. Or, as Dallas Willard puts it, ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives, because hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life. Think about that for a moment - Willard is saying that hurry isn’t just “well, it might be an issue.” Probably not the best thing for you. No, it is the great enemy of the spiritual life.

And here’s why - because you cannot be with someone in a hurry. Which means that you cannot be with Jesus in a hurry. If we are going to organize our lives around goal #1 of following Jesus, be with him, we must slow down, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. There is no other option. Non-negotiable. We can’t give hurry an inch, especially in our hurried culture, it will take a yard.

It’s been suggested that the pace of God is three miles per hour (as Stutzman discovered). If we’re going to follow him, we must slow down to be with him. To walk alongside Jesus. It’s very difficult to follow Jesus if you’re constantly rushing ahead. Slowing down enables us to be attentive to his voice, to hear what he wants to teach us. Slowing down allows us to enjoy Jesus for who he is, to delight in him, to come to know him. To see things about him that we would never come to know if we didn’t slow down to be with him.

If you ever saw the movie Vacation movie with Chevy Chase (that’s really an old movie now) - it’s a comedy about a family that faces every setback imaginable on their vacation that is taking them cross country on their way to Wally World. On the way, they decide to stop at the Grand Canyon. After some misadventures, they finally arrive there. Get out of the car, standing there looking at these spectacular views right in front of them. Chase’s character starts bobbing his head, alright, time to go. Back in the car and back on the way.

Ridiculous moment because they are so hurried that they can’t stop to enjoy the amazing beauty right in front of them. They can’t just stop and savor it, take it in. This is why slowing down is so essential, just to be present in that moment, to appreciate the person (in this case, Jesus) you’re with, the place you are, what you’re experiencing. Taste and see that the Lord is good.

James Bryan Smith tells the story of going with his son to an event (ballgame or concert), and on their way, they have some extra time, so they stop and get something to drink. Sitting there at the table, and Smith’s son starts getting fidgety. Come on, let’s go. I’m bored. His dad wants to sit and enjoy the time, so he engages his son, challenging him to notice twelve different things in the store. Son takes to it, starts noticing things, pointing them out. All of a sudden that place that seemed so boring was now interesting.

Lesson is that if we can fight off the urge to do, keep moving, give ourselves permission to sit and be, to be present to Jesus, to notice him more. If we do, we will begin to see more of Jesus. I have to fight that urge. It never ceases to amaze me that the urgency of time never hits me when I’m scrolling through my phone, always have time to play that game or watch “short” video. But wow, when it comes to sitting and just being still with Jesus, that list of things I “must” be doing, all of a sudden, I don’t have time for that.

We talked about this in Capernaum yesterday - and John Mark Comer writes about it in his book. In gospel of John, John the Baptist points Jesus out to two of his disciples - “Look, the Lamb of God!” Disciples leave John and start following Jesus. Jesus turns around and asks them, what do you want? They ask him where he is staying (really, where are you going, that’s where we want to go). John 1:39, “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” In another translation, “Come and see.” Come discover who I am, what I can teach you. The life I can give you.

This will only happen if we slow down. Ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. I’ve constantly been using the language that John Mark Comer uses because it lays it right out there, if we are to follow Jesus, we must organize our lives around these goals - be with Jesus, become like Jesus, to do like Jesus. If we do not make it a priority in our schedule to be with Jesus, we won’t do it. It will always be squeezed out because of the hurried pace of our lives.

By the way, Jesus felt that urgency. He crowds constantly coming after him, seeking him to heal, to show them a miracle, to hear his teachings (all great stuff). And yet Jesus always, always made time to pull away and be with the Father. Jesus himself - who had the most important mission ever - made it a priority to slow down to be with the Father, because he knew he could not fulfill his mission without that time with the Father.

So, to counter the great challenge of our hurried culture, we must slow down. And to counter the great challenge of distraction, we must learn to say no, or to put it another way, to simplify. A central key to being with Jesus is to simplify - not keep adding all these spiritual practices on top of everything else you’re doing (make your life even more hurried!), it is to say no to things in order to say yes to Jesus. To let things go.

Life is always a series of choices, of what I’m going to prioritize, how I’m going to spend my time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. We have to make choices with our money, though here we don’t all have the same - but we still have to make choices about how much we spend - and where we spend it. How much we save, how much we give. Those choices reflect what we value, what we treasure most. Why Jesus said very plainly, Matthew 5:24, No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus is pointing out the reality that we have to choose what (or who) we value most, That choice will be revealed in all the smaller choices we make in what we say “yes” to in terms of our time, our attention, our service, our money - and by default, what we say “no” to. The only way to say “yes” to Jesus, to being with him, is to say “no” to the innumerable other distractions that will eat up our time if we let it. We make the decision to start with Jesus, prioritize him, organize our lives to be with him.

That’s the simplification - we make the clear decision to be with Jesus, to engage in the daily and weekly practices that will enable us to slow down to be with him. Which means we will have to say “no” to other things - maybe a lot of things. A note on that - here’s where the Formation Audit can be really helpful (f you take the time to do it, review what you’re saying yes to that’s currently forming your life, shaping). This whole course is designed to help you learn how to slow down, to simplify, in order to be with Jesus.

Spiritual Direction -

If you haven’t taken the Spiritual Health Assessment yet, I recommend that to you. Spiritual Practices - Daily Prayer Rhythm (great way to be with Jesus) & Formation Audit. Reading is pp. 64-117. Larger chunk of reading - but, you’ve got two weeks to do it.

Small Group Sessions will be week after next, Tuesday, September 30 (7:15 pm) & Wednesday, October 1 (7 pm). One note on this - if you need to switch nights on a particular week, feel free to do so.

Closing Prayer - Time of Reflection