by Life can move real fast. We are a generation that is overstimulated, always rushing. But the thing with running is that we miss what is happening in our own lives, in the lives of our loved ones and people around us and we even miss what God is doing in the world around us.
About eight years ago, I adopted a mantra – Live, Connect, Equip, Inspire. The first two parts of that mantra were a response to what my life had become then – shallow, rushed, out of touch with myself, people and God.
So I decided to actually experience life. To live. To literally stop and smell the flowers (or the soil after rain showers); To chase the waterfall (or the bend on the road). To cook slowly and sit down to enjoy the food with a cup of tea. To have a long unhurried conversation with a friend. To have a hobby. To chat with strangers. To make a new friend and teach my children to do the same. To visit someone and not be rushed. To allow people to visit me and not rush them to leave. To linger after the church service. To get to know people and let myself be known.
This year I watched a short film by Matt Canlis titled Godspeed that enhanced my resolve to live at a pace of grace. The film suggests that, while we wish each other Godpseed, meaning we want things to move fast, maybe Godspeed aint really fast. Maybe God moves at a walking pace – three miles an hour.
In the film, Canlis, a young American pastor, finds himself serving in Scotland, removed from his busy life in America, which he describes as one of “running”. He is incorporated into the slow village parish life where, with the help of mentors Eugene Peterson and N. T. Wright, he learns how to live life at a pace of knowing people and being known, knowing God and oneself.
Canlis learns the importance of getting to know the people and being known by them. He learns to visit people at their homes rather than hide behind an office, to have more than just perfunctory rushed conversations, to be vulnerable with those he ministers to, to risk being known.
For Canlis, living life Godspeed meant:
Be present: Canlis says he was inspired by the life of Jesus, who in scripture is never presented as being rushed but who was able to accomplish his mission while seeing people and meeting needs. Jesus had time to sit with little children, whom his disciples thought were a distraction. He had the space to be interrupted by a hemorrhaging woman while going to literally save a life. Jesus paid attention. He noticed the unfruitful fig tree. He noticed virtue flow out of him when he was touched by the woman with an issue of blood. He heard Bartimaues shouting from a crowd. He saw Zacchaeus up a tree.
Are we present or rushed? Canlis warns that rushing through life means missing things. We miss where and how God is working in us and around us. But a walking pace, allows time to process what we are feeling and experiencing. It gives us more time to think about stuff. It’s a pace that let’s God know us and us him. It’s a pace that allows us to know others. God led Israel like a flock. When we haste, we risk rushing right past God’s provision and protection. We have to slow down to catch up with God.
Live in a fishbowl. Pastor Eugene Patterson advises Canlis to find a fishbowl where he can’t escape being known and where he loses the fear of being known. In a fishbowl, people can see all that you do and hear all that you say. It’s living unafraid of vulnerability or intimacy or forming relationships that have the potential to move us along in our journey of sanctification. Living in a fishbowl also means we can’t project one image in public and be someone different in private. Many times we don’t want to be known because people might not like us. But we have to live outside our four walls. Walk around. Visit people in their homes. Ask questions. Answer questions. Pay attention. Know people’s names. Learn from the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep and his sheep know him.
Seek stability. We are a tourist generation, always on the move, as if trying to escape from who we are and where we are. Because of that we have few relationships and they are shallow. We don’t get acquainted with people and we avoid being known. But the film emphasizes stability. Stay in one place long enough to be effective. We are quick to see people’s faults. Stability allows us to see the grace of God at work in people’s lives over time. It allows us to see their virtues. This cannot be rushed. We learn people by going deeper rather than by the relentless quest for shallow novelty, N.T. Wright advises. Stability gives us time to be invested in people, to earn their trust and to be known. Because building people is the purview of leadership, leaders need to sink their roots deeper to be effective.
Living Godpseed for us should be about keeping in step with the Spirit of God. God is at work all around us. He has been unveiling history over millennia. He’s certainly not in a hurry. We too can learn to be present (even if it means walking slower, literally), be relational and to live with sensitivity and wider margins so as to be available for God to use.
While reading Romans 12, I saw some pointers on living Godspeed:
- Don’t be tuned by the rhythms of this world but by God. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
- Stay humble. Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. Don’t think you know it all!
- Stay connected. View yourself as part of an ecosystem that’s highly interdependent. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
- Seek ways to serve others and serve them well. God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.
- Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Love each other with genuine affection,[e] and take delight in honoring each other.
- Be patient in trouble.
- Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good.
- Always be eager to practice hospitality. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them.
- Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
- Live in harmony with each other. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone. Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Never pay back evil with more evil. If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable.
- Keep on praying.
