There is a theme I’ve been noticing as I talk with people these days. It’s not new, but it is standing out a little more often in these culturally rushed and busy days of ours.

The theme is this: People tend to think there is something wrong with them if they are not progressing quickly through their current situation. Whether it’s a difficult work situation, a troubled relational issue, or a period of extended grief, many people are convinced that quickly is the only...

 Welcome to an Inhaling Grace audiobook episode of the Unhurried Living Podcast. Here are the next three devotionals from Inhaling Grace. May you sense the real presence of God shepherding you as you listen.

It’s a big week for the Unhurried Living community. We’re so glad you’re part of it. We write these weekly emails, produce our biweekly podcasts and, really, do everything else we do to help you enter into the unhurried way of life and work that Jesus invites us into.

One of the realities at the heart of this unhurried way is our very view of time itself. There are many cultural assumptions about time that we are bringing into the light and seeking to see against the...

Today we share with you a note from a leader in her mid-30s: I struggle to set priorities. It feels as though there is a lot to juggle between raising children, nurturing my marriage, training others, participating in a missional community, working with refugees, serving at church, managing my home, extra-curricular activities, etc. - and still have time to pursue physical and spiritual health. I know that these are important but just what balance is optimal?

I don’t know about you,...

Sometimes I like to stretch myself with a culture-bending question. It’s too easy for me to remain unaware of my own assumptions and biases. This idea comes to me more and more as I travel around the world.

I have now been to Mexico, Singapore, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Israel, Jordan, Italy, Spain, and Russia. (If you count airport layovers, I’ve also been to Japan and Switzerland).

And each country has its own culture, ways and assumptions.

Each time I have traveled it...

In the Fall of 2018, we published our first Unhurried Living devotional called Inhaling Grace. We’ve appreciated the encouraging response we’ve received since then. Over the next few months, we’ll share the devotional here as an audiobook. We’ll have more to say about that in a moment on the Unhurried Living Podcast.

In early 2016, when Gem and I launched Unhurried Living, I spent a few days on retreat with a small group of Christian leaders. We met at a little Episcopal retreat house called St. Columba’s in Inverness, CA. It overlooks Tomales Bay on the Pacific Coast just above San Francisco. I’m grateful for little holy places like this where we can rest, reflect and pray.

While I was there, I found myself reading a few lines from the letter to the Hebrews:

Therefore he had to become like...

We often talk here about how a hurried soul costs us more than we realize, and that an unhurried soul is a way of following the genius of Jesus’ way of life and work. But there is a hurry that is actually holy, and there is a way of being unhurried that is actually unholy. We’ll tackle this pair on today’s episode of the Unhurried Living Podcast.

• Unholy hurry is that variety of soul hurry that we must ruthlessly eliminate as Dallas Willard urged us.

• Holy...

As Unhurried Living has grown, so have my opportunities to speak with people. From the quiet space of a spiritual direction room, to a talk on retreat, to a workshop in a church building, I (Gem) have had multiple chances to talk about what I know.

Over the last few years I have ridden waves of anxiety about the situations mentioned above, as well as everything in between. It usually comes in “what if” form. What if I forget what to say? What if I don’t have an answer...or...

God takes rest seriously. Rest is built into the very fabric of creation. The first full day after the creation of humanity is a day of rest—a Sabbath. God rests. We rest. And rest is the place in which relationship is established and cultivated. This is why God urges us to enter his rest. It isn’t merely a moralism. It is an invitation to be rooted in love and grace. But it’s an invitation that we too often fail to open.

I’ve often been struck by an almost throw-away...