Living Too Fast

We have become so influenced by the fast-moving lifestyle of today that we find it difficult to slow down sufficiently to enjoy truth. The joy of truth is experienced best when we stop our feverish activity to reflect on truth, to meditate on joy. Our lives are too rushed for this.This is actually a vicious cycle. Having lost the security of being rooted in the eternal reality of the Word of God, we are looking to busy activity to fill the void that has been created in our lives. And under that bondage to activity we find it difficult to linger with the Word simply for the joy of it. In fact, we may be afraid to stop our busyness lest it expose the shallowness of our lives. So we go from activity to activity, from project to project. But activity is a dangerous source of fulfillment. Instead of finding our identity, our sense of self-worth, from our relationship with God, we begin to look to success in programs and other earthly indicators of success for our self-worth. But these will never satisfy. They will only enslave us to bondage to more activity.The result of this is burnout. The lust for success makes us so uncontrolled in our drivenness that we drive ourselves into the ground. After a time our bodies and minds say, ‘That is enough. I cannot stand it anymore.’ I think the current epidemic of burnout in the ministry is an indication of our loss of security in the Word. (Ajith Fernando, The Supremacy of Christ, p. 111)