Life in the Fast Lane

　　This devotional was written by Jim Burns

　　The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. —Exodus 14:14

　　Far too many of us live in what some people call "crisis mode living." This lifestyle is when you spend most every waking moment of almost every day trying to figure how to keep all your plates spinning and how to juggle all the balls in the air. In crisis mode you keep running, even on empty; faster and faster, project to project; deadline to deadline, school, jobs, friends, church, lessons, homework; and it just gets faster and faster.

　　Usually people who live this kind of lifestyle eventually crash. Their plates fall and they have to pick up their lives in pieces.

　　I keep these important words close to my heart. There is a lot of wisdom and prevention in them:

　　Slow me down, Lord.

　　Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.

　　Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.

　　Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.

　　Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory.

　　Teach me the art of taking minute vacations - of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to smile at a child, to read a few lines from a good book.

　　Slow me down, Lord, and inspire me to send my roots deep into the soil of life's enduring values, that I may grow toward my greater destiny.

　　Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift; that there is more to life than increasing its speed.

　　Let me look upward to the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well.

　　GOING DEEPER:

　　1. What is the message in today's devotional for you?

　　2. A friend of mine once told me, "If the devil can't make you bad, then he will make you busy." What do you think that statement means?

　　FURTHER READING:

　　Psalm 37:7-11

　　Photo Credit: Getty Images/ Milos-Muller

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