The other day, I was meeting with a leader in a coaching session and we were talking about the challenges of doing our work differently because of COVID-19. I was sharing that I have refocused a lot of what I do towards more writing and more coaching. He shared the stress of living so much of his life on computer and phone screens.
After a bit more conversation, I heard myself say this sentence: “In fact, I have so much important work right now that I’ll never get it done if I don’t slow down.” I really believe this. If I was working on an assembly line, perhaps I could measure my productivity in the simple math of bigger numbers.
But my work involves listening to and caring for people. It requires creativity, insight and compassion. Hurrying up doesn’t get more of this kind of work done well.
In An Unhurried Life, I wrote these words in a chapter on Productivity:
“Jesus saw himself as an apprentice to the Father in his work. He was not working on his own. Whatever he did was something he had seen his Father working at. I fear, therefore, that my own overwork is a failure of discernment. Am I following Jesus in my own way of working? Is all the work I’m doing in keeping with what the Father is doing and how he is doing it? Do I know what the Father is doing in the lives of people around me who are affected by my work? Am I working in concert with the Father or, perhaps unaware, in conflict with him? Might I find myself over-doing something God may later have to undo?” (An Unhurried Life, p. 46).
Those five questions that close the paragraph are important:
For Reflection:
Photo by Robert Zunikoff on Unsplash
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