Gary Holloway’s latest book, “You Might Be Too Busy If…Spiritual Practices for People in a Hurry” (Leafwood Publishers, 2009), is based on this premise: “…the biggest threat to our relationship with God and the biggest barrier to our quality of life is not immorality or secularlism or humanism but simply this: we are too busy.” (8)
In chapters 1-3 Holloway contrasts our experience of busyness with Jesus’ experience of busyness. Many of us live in a constant state of activity and with a constant sense of fatigue. Our weekends are no better than our weekdays–we merely trade out one to-do list for another. And even our church lives are sources of hurry and worry. We get burned out “working for the Lord.”
Jesus, however, “lived a centered life and yet accomplished all he needed. He was active and busy, but not hurried and fretful.” (15) Holloway examines how, in Mark 1, Jesus had a full day of ministry and service yet slipped out to a solitary place to be alone with God. Similarly, on one day Jesus received news of the death of John the Baptist and taught and fed a crowd of over five thousand–yet Jesus dismissed the crowd and spent time alone with God.
In other words, Jesus ordered his life around practices that brought him peace and kept him centered in the midst of much activity and great emotional demands. Jesus invites us into these same practices so that we might experience the same peace and rest. Holloway suggests that Jesus primarily engaged in four spiritual practices which are sorely needed today. The rest of the book explores these four practices.
[to be continued…]
