Hurry Sickness!

. Did you try to slow down yesterday? Did you get up a little earlier today to read and pray? Why not? (I know that could be getting a little to in your face, but someone needs too.) Dr. Meyer Friedman, a renowned cardiologist, dealing with very high-risk heart patients has coined a phrase that speaks to almost every American living today. It is “hurry sickness.” He coined it after realizing that most of these high-risk people displayed a overpowering sense of time urgency.

Wow! Does that sound familiar? Let me just ask it out right: “Does that sound like you?” It does me. Living a life of hurry can eventually be hard on your body. It is like a fight is going on in your body and your mind.

Dr. Friedman listed 10 symptoms of hurry. Let me list them and then you decide, and we’ll pray for each other. Here we go: irritability (sound familiar, are you irritable most of the time?) Hypersensitivity: does it take the simplest thing to hurt your feelings? Restlessness: if you did slow down, can you relax? Workaholism or Nonstop activity: you just don’t know when to stop. Emotional numbness: you are so exhausted you just can’t feel for someone else in their pain. Out-of-order priorities: you are disconnected from your calling and purpose. Lack of care for your body: you just don’t have the time to do anything good for your health, exercise is totally out! Escapist behavior: when we do try to do something good for ourselves, we turn to distractions to keep us from doing what is right: binge watching Stranger Things. Slippage of spiritual disciplines: you know you need to get back into the word daily, but you just can’t get back into the habit. Isolation: you feel disconnected from God, others, and your own soul.

How did you do? I don’t want us to feel guilty, I want us to see what Satan is doing to us with hurry. We are afraid we are going to miss out and Satan is driving the ship! Time to tell him that we are getting off his merry-go-round and we are getting ourselves back to God. Let’s start right now with prayer for our souls and ask God to help us prioritize our life around Him and His Word. It’s time to stop the hurry sickness.