3 MPH – Slow Down To Be More

Each new day it seems like there is always something that is pressing and rushed to get done. If you’re anything like me, sometimes you wake up in the morning more anxious and tired then when you first went to bed. With the rise of industrialism, globalization and the inauguration of the digital age, we can now work harder, longer and faster than ever before. But not without consequence.

Studies reveal that anxiety, depression and panic disorders have skyrocketed in the last decade, as millions of people are faced with the challenge of trying to keep up in a fast-paced digital world. Sadly, information overload, exhaustion and burnout have now become the new normal. We can’t seem to run fast enough, we can’t seem push hard enough, and the body, mind and spirit grow increasingly restless as a result.

In light of the dysfunction of our current system, it amazes me how popular culture still worships the workaholic and the “go-getter,” bidding us to do the same. It’s a recipe for disaster, and yet we are on collision course with even higher rates of suicide and mental illness than we’ve ever seen.

To save my own soul, I’ve had to fight back, and I mean to ruthlessly FIGHT off the gravitation toward conforming to our cultural moment - a culture of NOW - defined by its relentless obsession with higher productivity and performance (pharaoh’s useless demand for more bricks 🧱) so that I can restfully walk with Jesus and follow him at his pace.

A Japanese theologian once said that God himself has a precise speed and surprisingly it’s not breaking any sound barriers, because it’s simply 3mph.

The pace of love is the pace of Jesus who walked slow enough to stop, slow enough to heal, slow enough to release those in captivity, and to set free the oppressed. We can’t love others well, love God, or even love ourselves well unless we slow down and walk at His pace - the pace of love - 3mph.