Hajja Salesjana

of ours, and yet he never seemed hurried. So why are we in such a hurry? I felt this tension acutely when the pandemic began. Events were canceled. Work was remote. Social gatherings were discouraged. Schedules were suddenly wiped clear. And yet I continued to feel busy, scattered, restless — as if my heart couldn’t slow down to reality. I felt behind when I wasn’t, rushed when I didn’t need to be, and guilty when I hadn’t done anything wrong. Life had slowed to a crawl, but I was still in a hurry. I believe one of the many good purposes God had in the hardships of the last two years was to break some of us, including me, from hurry. We were made to walk. Walk by the Spirit Have you noticed how often God himself calls the faithful Christian life a “walk”? § “We  walk  by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). § “We are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk  in them” (Ephesians 2:10). § “ Walk  in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us” (Ephesians 5:2). § “ Walk  in a manner worthy of the Lord” (Colossians 1:10). § “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time” (Colossians 4:5). In short, we “ walk by the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16). We embrace the uncomfortably slow pace of being human, of having relationships, of meeting with God. Yes, the apostle Paul ran the race set before him (1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 2:16), but even then, it was the patient and deliberate pace of a lifelong marathon, not the force of a fifty-yard dash. To seize on his running, while ignoring his repeated emphasis on walking, is to read our modern frenzy into his vision for life and ministry. Make Friends with Finitude Healthy people make friends with finitude. John Mark Comer writes, “We’re not God. We’re mortal, not immortal. Finite, not infinite. Image and dust. Potential and limitations. One of the key tasks of our apprenticeship to Jesus is living into both our potential and our limitations.” ( Hurry , 63) Some of us need to be reminded that, as humans, we are spectacular creatures, made in the image of God and given unparalleled ability and opportunity to influence the eternities of others. The potential of any human life, of your life, cannot be quantified or contained. Others of us, however, need to be reminded that, as humans, we are inescapably limited — that as fallen people in a fallen world, our  finitude  really is part of our glory, because his power is not only made photo by Jad Limcaco www.unsplash.com 29 Jannar-Marzu 2022 hajja