“Hurry kills everything from compassion to creativity. It can make someone who is ordinarily compassionate indifferent to suffering.”
(quote from Wild Goose Chase, by Mark Batterson)
The success of my day is often measure by how much I get done. I live in a hurry. And when I get in a routine of rushing through life (like at the end of every semester..), I start seeing people as interruptions to my pace; hindrances to my to-do list.
But can’t you see it?? If being in a hurry is killing our compassion and creativity, our pace of life turns out to be our worst enemy. We make excuses, we don’t have time (for God, for exercise, for relationships that are actually real and meaningful)… and eventually, we don’t have time to give to anything but our own schedule.
We see earthquakes, floods, and tsunamis, but our hardened hearts look the other way because those people are “too far away,” “someone else will help them,” and “I don’t have time to help everyone…” But think about where we are right now– witnesses to the worst natural disaster in hundreds of years– we have the opportunity to give to something that is far beyond ourselves.
So instead of our pace of life becoming out worst enemy, we can be as busy as ever, but focus on what’s important… what fulfills us. Slow down and notice the pictures. Don’t rush past them… don’t let your hurry kill your compassion.



10And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday.
11“And the LORD will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”
(isaiah 58:10-11)