Listening well is becoming a precious commodity. Have you noticed the speed with which people interact? 

Picture yourself at the grocery checkout line. There is friendly banter, of course, but you must be rushed along so that the person behind you doesn’t get agitated.  

What about the fast food drive-thru? More quick talking and moving so that you can get in, out and gone.

If you are a parent, you might find yourself hurrying your children along so that you can get to...

If you’re like me, you often have a very long “to do” list going. I recently found myself looking at a list that had grown to many dozens of items. Some of them were ideas I wrote down a while back. Some were ideas others had suggested that sounded good at the time. Some related to steps of development for our many current writing and ministry projects.

Lists like that can eventually become paralyzing for me. I see what looks to me like a million things I must do, and then...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

We may be familiar with some of the Hebrew names for God: Elohim, El-Shaddai, Yahweh, Jehovah and Adonai. But what about the regular, day to day terms God uses in scripture to describe himself?

Today’s email is a little different than usual. I’d like to invite you to spend a few moments here engaging with this list of descriptive words. It will likely take just as long as it would take you to read one of my regular emails. Give yourself the gift of engaging here for a moment.

...

A practice that has meant a lot to me over the years has been praying scripture very personally. In the past, I was sometimes guilty of reading scripture at arm’s length. By that, I mean that I would study what certain words meant in original languages, I would read what others thought about the scriptures in commentaries, and I would talk about the scriptures as true and good. But I wouldn’t take them in. I wouldn’t see them intersecting with my actual life as I found it at...

Little known fact: I have a one-inch scar on my left wrist. One day, as a youngster enjoying a warm summer day, I followed my friend out the front door. I tried catching the half glass and half screen door with my hands before it hit me in the face.

Unfortunately, my hand broke the glass and went straight through that portion of the door. It was a miracle that I only have one scar. And the cut was in just the right shape and size that it didn’t hit any major vessels.

I hadn’t...