“This is the problem with living at 150 miles per hour. Life becomes a blur of images. I see it all go by, but I lose the plotline, the narrative, even the dialogue.
Really, I lose life.”
Being honest, I think we can all identify with this quote from Vince Antonucci, especially at this time of year! Even though David and I have made a commitment to participate in the Advent Conspiracy this year, it is still tempting to speed up so much that we lose sight of the beauty of life, the joy of the journey. Antonucci goes on, in his book I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy T-shirt, to quote from theologian Kosuke Koyama. It is the antidote to our hurry disease. It is how we rediscover the plotline to our life.
God walks “slowly” because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed…It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk,and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.
Vince Antonucci picks up from there:
This is what is holding me back from living the Jesus life. I’m going 150, but God moves at 3 miles per hour. So I need to slow down and walk at God’s speed. I need to move at the speed of love.
Did you catch it? The speed of love.
That’s my prayer for myself and you today: that we would all move at the speed of love, no faster and no slower. In this season which is so emotionally laden for so many people, I want to slow down enough to be fully present with the people I love and the people I haven’t met yet. Isn’t that what the incarnation — Jesus’ birth — really is? His opportunity to BE with us? God with us?
I don’t need a single present for Christmas this year, and you probably don’t either. Not really. But what we all need is the hope, encouragement and faith that comes from being WITH each other.
Today’s Advent Conspiracy challenge, for me, is to slow down to the speed of love.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
this is So So good. thank for your the encouragement, reminder & challenge. i think the message your shared here cannot be said enough… oh so timely.