Joy A. Mead

Do you ever feel like this world seems to keep getting faster and faster? All the technology we have around us to supposedly help get things done more efficiently also creates challenges that didn’t used to exist. 

One example is text/Whatsapp messages. We can rapidly receive so many messages per day, that it’s easy to get caught up in thinking that just as instantly as we received the message, we must send a response. After all, others can see when we’ve read their messages!

I found my anxiety level rising gradually but steadily as I was trying to reply to one message. Meanwhile, three school emails popped up, interrupting my train of thought in the reply to the one message and distracting me. Annoyance and stress started to enter. It highlighted to me that somehow I often feel behind with trying to get a task done when a wave of others comes flooding in. 

I was praying off and on around this time of day, and I felt the Holy Spirit’s prompting, “You know, you don’t have to try to respond to everything right away. You can take more time—not everything is urgent.”

I lingered with those words for a while: Not everything is urgent.

It seems like a straightforward thing to remember, but when I’m daily bombarded, as I’m sure you are too, with phone texts, WhatsApp messages, and emails, even social media, sometimes I just need that reminder to stop and pause in the knowledge that I don’t have to reply to everything in such a rush. 

It is true: Not everything is urgent. Probably most things aren’t, actually!

Having this perspective is a small example of me learning to choose what brings my heart peace and acknowledging to myself that I am human with limitations—that I don’t have to resemble a robot in being a continuous machine. I don’t have to respond as if every detail of life is an emergency. It is okay to live life more slowly.

In John 14:27 Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Even in our busy days, as we entrust our circumstances and the itinerary of our days to God, we can experience peace. Perhaps there is chaos all around us, but God will help us to sift through what tasks need to be prioritized and in what order. 

One of the most encouraging verses when I am feeling the tide of stress rising within me is John 16:33 where Jesus tells his disciples, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” 

Ultimately, no matter how many things I feel I need to achieve in any given day or how many things don’t go to plan, I can have a confident perspective that Jesus has already gone before me. There’s nothing he hasn’t already handled. He will eventually calm the storm in me and he’ll do that for you too!