Episode 23 •
15th February 2022 • Faith Fueled Woman: Christian Encouragement for Joyful, Intentional Living • Kristin Fitch- Christin Life Coach & Wellness Mentor , Christian Podcaster, Encourager
On today's episode Kristin talks about the importance of slowing down, and the need to understand what our priorities are, especially our spiritual priorities so we can access where we might be filling our days with mindless distractions and entertainment or busyness that we could edit in order to make time for prayer, hearing God and living a calmer, more joyful life by living by Jesus' example- he was never in a hurry and was clear on his focus and made time to get quiet with God daily. This is a great episode to encourage you to edit your schedule to align with a life that allows us more space and grace to live in the present, find more communion with God and feel lighter and less anxious.
The first is that in lots of parts of the world, but definitely in the US. There has been this glamorization of dizziness of hurry, you know, and honestly, I've talked to so many of my friends we text or on the phone or in person. And often there's too much frazzling or rush rush rushing to the point where you can see the anxiety, physical anxiety coming out of them. But it's because instead of making hard choices in the heart versus being we're going to cut some things out or we're going to take a break and do nothing, even not respond sometimes right to people as long as they never stay fit. Okay. But first of all, it's that that it's this glamorization, of busy, and it's glamorization of, of just fitting in too many things. Those things could be work related. It could be too many fun things. It could be too many things that just distract us like too much Netflix binging or, you know, just whatever the thing might be. So that's the first thing is we we should try to pause and think about are we allowing this cultural definition of success, heart or hurt our lives? In other words, why do we think that busyness should be a badge of honor, when really it just makes us not be able to enjoy the relationships around us and the fruits that We we've been given. So that's the first thing like, let's just pause more regularly and assess, how's the day going? And how do I feel. And if we feel overwhelmed, if we feel anxious, if we feel like we're rushing all the time to the point that it's, you know, it's causing stress, it's causing us to snap at people, whatever it might be, it might be time, just start being more
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rson touches their phone like:
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But you know, we weren't really meant to live in this hurried lifestyle, we were meant to have time for rest and recovery and time for processing and time for connection with our souls and with God. And often we're so hurried and busy and distracted. We don't even have time for that to happen. And so I think this was just such a interesting and important topic that we all for the most part struggle with. And, you know, he, in John's book, he basically goes on to say, Do you ever catch yourself with a sneaking suspicion that you'll wake up on your deathbed with this nagging sense that somehow In all the hurry and busyness and frenetic activity, you missed the most important things. And then he gives a couple examples. Somehow he started a business but ended a marriage. You got your kids to their dream colleges, but never taught them the way of Jesus. You got letters after your name, but learned the hard way that intelligence is not the same as wisdom, made a lot of money but never grew rich and the things that matter most, which ironically, aren't things at all. You watched all 14 seasons of blank but never learned to love prayer. And then he says, this is a terrifying aspect of the conversation for me. Most of us waste copious amounts of time, myself included. For all the talk about Hurrian overload, most of it is self inflicted. And then he says, Philip Zimbardo has recent research on the demise of guys, I eat the crisis of masculinity in Western culture has been concluded the average guy spends 10,000 hours playing video games by the age of 21 10,000 hour hours. And then John goes on to say my mind jumps to the research around this role in 10,000 hours, you could master any craft or become an expert in any field, from Sumerian archaeology to Olympic waterpolo. You could get your bachelor's degree and your master's degree, you could memorize the New Testament, or you could beat level four of Call of Duty. Hmm. And then he then he goes on to say, and how we spend our time is how we spend our lives. It's who we become or don't. And I don't know about you, but I definitely, you know, have the struggle with one or more of our sons, where their default of entertainment is the Xbox. And as I mentioned that number earlier of Netflix, so many of us kids, teens, or teens and adults. We are Netflix binging maybe not every night, some some every night. We're spending hundreds of hours or more a year doing that. And look, I am just as guilty. And by guilt, I'm not saying we should feel bad, it's if we really truly know what matters to us. And if we truly know what we want for our lives, we need to weigh those things against how much time we spend on things that aren't helping us grow or stretch or impact the world or impact our own lives. And so this conversation isn't about trying to feel guilty. It's just, it's an invitation to say, what is distracting us? What is causing our anxiety, our rushing our busyness. And where can we make different choices. So that we can actually live the life that if we really quiet down and we close our eyes, we would love to live? What does that look like for you. But if it looks like that you could finish a degree or it looks like you want to read more books every year or or listen to more podcasts. Maybe you want to get through the Bible this year, or in the next couple of months. Maybe you want to take a trip. But the question is, if you're not moving towards those things, what can you stop doing that will help you get there? Because as they say, a goal without a deadline is just a
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race. It's a is it a dream, they say? But in other words, we're not going to accomplish it if we don't put you know, pen to paper and have some actual requirements around. What do we want to filter out? How often do we really want to spend each week watching Netflix or sitting on our phone when we could be doing something deeper enriching, richer and more meaningful? So that's the challenge the invitation to all of us. It's how do we create a environment where we're always checking in with ourselves, we're checking in with what our days look like how we've scheduled them, so that we can, as he talks about in the book, have this ruthless elimination of hurry so that we can redesign our lives for how we want them to feel and look, and so that we're spending time on the things that we say are the most important in our in our life, you know, or in our lifetime. So I would just leave you with this idea. How can we find time in our day in our week to get quiet to remove the distractions of the television and our smartphones? The noise of the news the noise of hustle and bustle and other things so that we can really hear our own thoughts that we really can commune with God and really have time to reset into connect and slow down and have this kind of restful spirits that I think most of us are longing for today. So that's what I would ask you. And I think part of that comes from quiet and slowing down. It also comes from reflection, and then nor regularly assessing what we the life we want with what it is we're currently how we're living. And I would love to hear from you. I'd love to hear how are you? Assessing? We know what your life and your days and your schedule looks like? And how are you eliminating things that are distractions or, or are causing more busyness or anxiety in your life than you want? I would love to hear how you're tackling this in for most of us it's an ongoing thing. But you know, I think we have to look you know at our daily lives in order to make changes or slight adjustments. Have a great day. Until next time. Thanks again for listening to spark a faith. If you enjoyed the show, we would love it if you would share it with a friend. And if you would leave us a rating and review on Apple podcast because it helps us get discovered by more people to spread more hope in the world. So thanks again and we send a weekly little encouragement email as well just go to spark a faith.com and enter your email address. We would love to encourage you in your inbox as well.
