Ever notice how we approach life these days? We rush through stores, grabbing free samples but never buying ingredients to cook a real meal. We speed-read articles instead of books. We scroll through feeds of friends' lives instead of sitting across from them.
We've become professional skimmers.
I watched this play out last weekend at a wholesale store. People were pushing oversized carts around, taking tiny bites of everything—little crackers with cheese, microsips of smoothies, one-bite meatballs—all while racing to the next station. Nobody savoring. Nobody slowing. Just consuming little pieces of everything and fully experiencing nothing.
Sound familiar?
The Illusion of More
Most of us live our lives this way. We sample work projects, relationships, entertainment, even our relationship with God. We graze on hurry and distraction, never fully satisfied. We stock up on experiences hoping they'll hold us over, but we never slow down enough to let anything truly nourish us.
The truth? We're skimming the surface of life and never really living it.
Jesus puts it bluntly in Matthew 16:25-26: "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?"
We've been sold a powerful lie that busyness equals importance. That rest is unproductive. That our worth is measured by our output.
Remember when technology was supposed to make life easier? Instead, it just made everything faster. And somehow angrier.
We used to wait days for photos to develop—now if our phone takes longer than half a second to respond, we're convinced we'll never see our family pictures again. Everything's on demand, but if a streaming service buffers for two seconds, we're ready to restart our WiFi, our TV, and possibly our entire existence.
We aren't just busy—we're addicted to hurry. And we're hurrying through all the wrong things.
The Jesus Pace
Did you know we're following a Savior who never ran anywhere? Jesus walked everywhere—moving at about three miles per hour. No rush, no hustle. And yet He accomplished everything God called Him to do.
Think about that for a moment. The Son of God—with a world-changing mission, only three years of public ministry, and the fate of humanity hanging in the balance—wasn't rushing.
In John 15:4, Jesus says, "Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me."
We don't need more speed. We need more connection.
As executives and leaders, we fight to save 45 seconds in a meeting for what? So we can check emails while walking to the next meeting? Our devices run out of battery if we don't charge them—and likewise, a branch doesn't bear fruit unless it's connected to the vine. Yet somehow we go days or weeks making critical decisions without reconnecting to our source.
Galatians 5:25 reminds us, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Not run ahead of the Spirit. Not rush the Spirit. Keep in step.
If we're going to give up hurry, it starts simply: slow down and create space for God to speak and act in our leadership and lives.
Creating a Trellis for Your Life
A vineyard doesn't grow wild—it has a trellis, a structure that lifts the vines so they can bear fruit. Without a trellis, vines grow chaotically, becoming susceptible to disease, pests, and decay. No fruit comes because all the energy is wasted on unstructured growth.
Our lives need similar structure—what some spiritual traditions call a "Rule of Life." This isn't some legalistic set of demands. It's a framework for intentional living that prioritizes connection with God and others.
People tell me, "I need to be more balanced!" Great. What's your plan?
Your current system is perfectly designed to give you exactly the results you're getting. Want different results? You need a different system.
A Rule of Life simplifies priorities by focusing on abiding in Christ. Maybe it's Scripture before email. Perhaps it's a 24-hour Sabbath. Or making dinner a sacred space where devices are surrendered and real conversation happens.
Start small—don't go full monk overnight. Begin with one or two rhythms. Be specific—not just "pray more" but "10 minutes of silence before my first meeting." And subtract before you add—less clutter and fewer distractions create space for what matters.
Rest as a Competitive Advantage
Jesus didn't say, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you a productivity hack." He said in Matthew 11:28, "I will give you rest."
When was the last time you truly rested? Not just slept—but stopped and committed time to God? When did you last look out a window without feeling guilty? When did you engage in conversation without checking your watch?
We even rush through vacations—it's common to return saying, "I need a vacation from my vacation."
Psalm 23 says, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul."
If I can't rest, maybe it's because He's not really my shepherd. Maybe I'm not letting Him "make" me lie down. As a result, there are no quiet waters in my life and no refreshment for my soul.
The Sabbath itself is a profound gift—as Eugene Peterson puts it, "The sabbath is uncluttered time and space to distance ourselves from the frenzy of our own activities so we can see what God has been doing and is doing." It's not about religious obligation but strategic perspective.
You Don't Find Rest. You Choose It.
It's time to give up hurry so we can find the depth our leadership and lives long for.
We don't have to hustle harder, just abide deeper. We don't have to add more—simply create space for what matters most. We don't have to run to keep up with the world—we can slow down to walk with Jesus.
Be still more often. Sabbath like your leadership depends on it—because it does.
Create a trellis that helps you stay connected to Jesus and watch the fruit grow—not from striving, but from abiding.
Because in the end, as leaders we won't be remembered for our workload but for the life we actually lived and the people we truly influenced. And that legacy is found not in the rushing around, but in the slowing down to hear God's voice and experience His presence.
So the next time you find yourself rushing through life like a shopper grabbing every sample without satisfaction, remember Jesus's pace—and choose to walk instead of run.