Friend,
Years ago, when I was a kid eating dinner with our family, the phone (the hanging on the wall phone with the long curving cord) rang and my dad answered it. (My dad was a pastor, so the odds were incredibly high that when the phone rang, it was for him.)
He answered the phone. Someone in the church was being taken to the emergency room, and they wanted him to come up there. I expected my dad to leave his plate at the table, get in his car, and leave instantly.
That’s not what he did.
Instead, my dad sat back down, finished his dinner, changed his clothes, and then left.
I remember asking him why he wasn’t leaving right away. Someone was going to the emergency room. Don’t you leave everything in case of an emergency? What if they die?
And he told me, “I’ve learned that if I rush to leave in a hurry, then I’m rushed and hurried when I arrive. They need me at my best when they are at their worst.”
John Mark Comer notes that “hurry is a form of violence on one’s soul.” When you are constantly reacting and rushing, then you are at your worst, and often those are the times when you need to be at your best.
There are a few times in our lives when there are actual emergencies, and most of those involve ambulances.
So it’s ok to finish your pork chops, take a deep breath, and then go.
Love,
Aaron