Date: February 25, 2008 4:15 PM
Topic: 111.6 miles per hour
I love speed . . . you are just closer to God when you go fast. Danger and death and pain and injury are all just a moment away at racing speeds. This morning I was enjoying the scenery (however briefly) flying past me at 111.6 mph! No I wasn't driving, I wasn't even sitting in the front seat. I was merely a passenger in the back seat, riding in a car being driven by someone else.
Although it is only 10:00 am, I have already have traveled at a wide wide range of speeds today. First of all, my Field Director graciously got up at Zero Dark Thirty this morning and picked me up at my house at 5:00 am to take me to the airport. He obviously had just rolled out the sack and was only partially awake, because we never got over 50 mph the entire way to the airport, even when we were on the highway. Then the plane that took me up and over the problems in Serbia to Croatia was moving at about 400 mph. And then the ride from this airport in Croatia to the seminary.
Believe it or not, I did not actually notice that we were going fast, until we got up over 100 mph. I was reading and typing in the back seat, preparing for class lectures. But once you start moving faster than 100 mph, you have those little floating feelings deep inside your lower abdomen, and that caused me to look up at the landscape flashing by me, and then I glanced over at the speedometer . . . 180 kph! According to my calculator, that equals 111.6 mph.
I have probably driven this fast myself more than a few times :-), but I rarely sit quietly in a car while someone else drives that speed. Most people make me far too nervous, but my driver today did not. He handle himself and the car with great skill and confidence.
Carolyn will be upset, but there is a spiritual principle that I want to make from this. While we may very well enjoy the thrill of moving through life at 111.6 mph, there are many extra dangers that come from moving at such speeds. I find the most dastardly one, to be exhaustion. The focus and energy required to safely (ok, relative safety) navigate such speeds is exhausting. When I start counting up how few days I take "off" and how many days I am "on" the numbers and imbalance is alarming! The second is the intense "doing" rather than "being". You are simply moving too fast to BE anything, racing from one assignment to the next, from one task to the next.
The result is a tired overachiever! I am not sure God finds much pleasure in such followers. He seemed to enjoy those who sat at His feet and hung out with Him far more than those who did something all the time. Maybe it's time to slow down?
