If irritability, hypersensitivity, restlessness, or workaholism are not issues for you (!), then perhaps you might find yourself struggling with one of the other signs of hurry sickness described in John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry.
Emotional numbness. You just don’t have the capacity to feel another’s pain, Or your own pain for that matter. Empathy is a rare feeling for you. You just don’t have the time for it. You live in this kind of constant fugue.
Out-of-order priorities. You feel disconnected from your identity and calling. You’re always getting sucked into the tyranny of the urgent, not the important. Your life is reactive, not proactive. You’re busier than ever before yet still feel like you don’t have time for what really matters to you. Months often go by or years - or, God forbid, maybe it’s been decades - and you realize you still haven’t gotten around to all the things you said were the most important in your life.
Lack of care for your body. You don’t have time for the basics: eight hours of sleep a night; daily exercise; healthy, home-cooked food; minimal stimulants; margin. You gain weight. Get sick multiple times a year. Regularly wake up tired. Don’t sleep well. Live off the four horsemen of the industrialized food apocalypse: caffeine, sugar, processed carbs, and alcohol.
Escapist behaviors. When we’re too tired to do what’s actually life giving for our souls, we each turn to our distraction of choice: overeating, overdrinking, binge-watching Netflix, browsing social media, surfing the web, looking at porn - name your preferred cultural narcotic. Narcotics are good, healthy even, on an occasional and short-term basis when they shield us from unnecessary pain; but when we abuse them to escape from reality, they eat us alive. You find yourself stuck in the negative feedback loop of socially acceptable addictions.
Slippage of spiritual disciplines. If you’re anything like me, when you get overbusy, the things that are truly life giving for your soul are the first to go rather than the first go to - such as quiet time in the morning, Scripture, prayer, Sabbath, worship on Sunday, a meal with your community, and so on. Because in an ironic catch-22, the things that make for rest actually take a bit of emotional energy and self-discipline. When we get overbusy, we get overtired, and when we get overtired, we don’t have the energy or discipline to do what we need most for our souls. Repeat. The cycle begins to feed off its own energy. So instead of life with God, we settle for life with a Netflix subscription and a glass of cheap red wine. A very poor substitute. Not because the time wasted on TV is the great Satan but because we rarely get done binge-watching anything (or posting to social media, or overeating Five Guys burgers and fries, etc.) and feel awake and alive from the soul outward, rested, refreshed, and ready for a new day. We delay the inevitable: an emotional crash. And as a consequence, we miss out on the life-giving sense of with-ness of God.
Isolation. You feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul. On those rare times when you actually stop to pray (and by pray I don’t mean ask God for stuff; I mean sit with God in the quiet), you’re so stressed and distracted that your mind can’t settle down long enough to enjoy the Father’s company. Same with your friends: when you’re with them, you’re also with your phone or a million miles away in your mind, running down the to-do list. And even when you’re alone, you come face to face with the void that is soul and immediately run back to the familiar groove of busyness and digital distraction.
If you are like me, such an examination of our hearts and lives can produce feelings of guilt or shame. Reject those. However, see this as an opportunity for a real and honest examination of your life, especially what is going on in the interior. Where there are revealed areas of sin and perhaps idolatry, repent and taste anew the forgiveness of God in Christ. If it shows weakness, then ask God for grace and strength. And if there is growth, thank God that He is the one who gives the increase. Diagnosis is not the end goal but it is necessary so that we might seek the cure. And the ultimate cure for hurry sickness is the gospel of Jesus Christ, whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
