One evening my family went to the grand opening of a store in our hometown to purchase a new appliance. I was ecstatic. For the first time, we were going to have something that nobody on our street had. Mom and Dad looked at the models on display, debated their cost, and finally decided on the question that would affect my life to this day:
“VHS or Beta?”
Nearly five hundred dollars later, we were the proud owners of a new video cassette recorder (VCR), complete with clock that blinked 12:00 incessantly, multicolored buttons, and wireless remote control. That night, the first video I watched was The Last Starfighter. It was an incredible experience.
Today, I still enjoy watching movies. Old-time flicks like Arsenic and Old Lace. Science fiction films like The Abyss. Movies with great stories like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Comedies like Muppets from Space. Even cartoons such as Monsters Inc. serve to fascinate me. And sometimes what seems to be a silly film can turn out to have a very poignant message.
Take, for example, the comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In the film, Ferris fakes a cold to get out of school so he can spend an adventure-filled day with his friends Cameron and Sloane. Add in a jealous sister, a determined principal, and an attempt to pull off the whole ruse without the parents knowing, and you have the plot. While the film is hilarious, Ferris makes a very important statement. So important, in fact, that he mentions it twice—once at the beginning of the movie and once at the end: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Have we lost the ability to slow down in life? It seems that with each passing year, it becomes more and more difficult to slow down. Our jobs demand more and more from us. There are appointments to make, deadlines to meet, kids’ soccer games to attend, and emails to catch up on. Consider that people today sleep 2 ½ fewer hours each night than people did 100 years ago. 1
I’m just as guilty as anyone else. When I get going, my RPMs rev up to 15000+ and do not stop until I fall asleep at night. To slow down is to risk missing something. How ironic that is when compared to Ferris Bueller’s earlier statement!
Yet we must always keep in mind that the enemy of authentic faith is busyness. We have to find a way to slow down or risk catastrophic consequences in our physical, mental, social, and spiritual lives. You can’t repair a race car going 200 miles per hour. So why do we think we can “be still and know God” (Psalm 46:10 [NIV]) when we cannot find the time to take a lunch break? It’s in the slow times that the Lord can speak to us in important and meaningful ways.
We must be willing to seek God out, and truly know him, not just know about him. Even while he was teaching and healing vast numbers of people, Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16 [NIV]). This was one of the ways that Christ slowed down—by recognizing his earthly limits and allowing God to recharge him out of the spotlight.
In addition to slowing down, we must also be willing to listen. Take the prophet Elijah for example. After taking out a bunch of the prophets of Baal in a little mountainside challenge, Jezebel sent Elijah a note saying that he was going to be killed—and quickly. He ran for his life and fled to a cave near Mount Horeb with the help of an angel of God. This is where God found him and asked, “What are you doing here?” After Elijah recounted the story to the Lord, God told him, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by” (1 Kings 19:11a [NIV]). And in that hiding place, something noteworthy happened.
There was a powerful wind that ripped the mountains apart. But it wasn’t God.
There was an earthquake. But it wasn’t God.
There was a fire. But it wasn’t God.
There was a “gentle and quiet whisper [Message].” Only then did Elijah come out from hiding.
How difficult it is to hear that when we’re constantly running full throttle! With that said, we need to build into our lives time to slow down, listen to the Lord, and respond to him as appropriate. When you don’t make time for God, you cannot accomplish the things he desires for you to do. He has plans for your life—take time to learn what they are (see Jeremiah 29:11-13).
I know how life can assault you with its artillery of meetings, responsibilities, and emergencies. But I also know the importance of slowing down and allowing God to perform a change in my life. Am I there yet? Not completely. Part of the delay in this edition came from stressing about an issue and ending up with a migraine headache that put me in the doctor’s office. But God is doing something special in my life, and I know he will do the same in yours.
So, what about you? Is your life stuck in 6th gear with no human way to get back to 1st? Do you need to s—l—o—w d—o—w—n? Today, may you think about what Ferris Bueller had to say. May you hear that gentle whisper Elijah did and come out to meet the Lord. And as you meet with him, may he refresh you so that you can, in turn, refresh others.
“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer. From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”
—Psalm 61:1-2 (NIV)
“You can’t become an authentic Christian on a diet of constant activity, even if the activity is all church related.”
—Bill Hybels 2
1 Swenson, Robert. Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. NavPress, Colorado Springs CO: 114.
2 Hybels, Bill. Too Busy Not to Pray. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 132.
All material copyright 2006 J. Alan Sharrer. No part of this message may be reproduced—other than the forwarding of the original, unaltered message—without express written permission.
