In our fast-paced American culture, there are few worse things we can be accused of than “laziness.” If laziness is one of our culture’s most hated vices, “busyness” has become one of our highest virtues. Often, regardless of whether we recognize it, we measure our sense of worth and value based on how busy our lives are and how impressive our resumes appear.

Deep down, we know we have been created to live a life of purpose and impact. But in our restless effort not to waste our life, we cram it so full we have no space left to live it.
We complain of being overworked, and yet we constantly seek out new and higher opportunities to prove ourselves. We prize upward mobility and feel antsy when we have nowhere to be or nothing to do. In our effort to maximize each moment we zip through them, stuffing them with as much productivity as possible. We waterski across the surface of each hour, barely aware of the vast ocean beneath us in which God is at play.

Jesus, on the other hand, told us He came that we “may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10 NIV). But the life Jesus gives is not something abstract or formless—it is a Way of Life. It is Jesus’ own life, graciously formed in us by the Spirit. This is why, before anyone was called a “Christian,” the earliest disciples of Jesus were known as men and women “belonging to the Way” (Acts 9:2 ESV).

As those called to be followers of Christ, we must look at the life of Christ. What is the Way of Life, the pace of life, He has graciously called us into? It is here, with Him, that the fullness of life is to be found.

In one of His most famous teachings, Jesus speaks directly to the anxiety that drives so much of modern society. Many of us know by heart Jesus’ words here in Matthew 6, when he says: “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on” (Matthew 6:25 ESV). Yet we have never stopped to consider the specific practice Jesus gives to help us live out this faith-filled approach to life…

“LOOK at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them… CONSIDER the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:26-29 ESV)

With our breakneck speed and jam-packed schedules, who among us has the time to stop, look, and consider such things!? Jesus did. He knew that, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Psalm 19:1 ESV). Rather than jamming each moment full of activity, podcasts and meetings, He slowed down to listen to each day as it “pours out speech” (Psalm 19:2 ESV). Jesus knew that despite our sin and brokenness, because of God’s abundant grace, “The whole earth is filled with his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3 ESV).

This slowed-down spirituality and faith-filled awareness is what allowed Jesus to notice the small occasions of glory that others around him missed — like the gift of one poor widow in a crowded temple (Luke 21:1-3), or the healing of a woman who had been sick for years (Luke 8:43-48). The call to follow Jesus is a call to slow down with Jesus.

It is a call to follow the One who puts efficiency aside, taking on flesh to dwell among us. Who chose the path of downward mobility, brought to a full-stop on the Cross, that we might see and share in His glory by pure grace (John 1:14).

So this ministry year, let’s enter into the Way of Jesus—the pace of Jesus—together. Let’s slow down long enough to look, consider, and give God glory.

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