Eliminating Hurry, vol. 5: Putting the Unhurried Life into Practice

Welcome to Heaven Earth Church.

My name is Ross Stackhouse.

I'm the founding pastor of Heaven Earth Church.

From the beginning, our heart was to be a church for people who

don't fit neatly into church.

Our heart is to meet people where they are, to learn their stories,

to honor their stories.

Because in every human story is God's story.

In this podcast, you'll hear more about the people who now call

Heaven Earth Church home.

Their stories, in many cases of misfits who are discovering or

rediscovering faith.

If you want to know more about us, you can go to heavenorthchurch.org

Otherwise, we invite you now into the story.

Hello, good people.

Brad Miller here, the producer of the Heaven Earth Church podcast.

One of the main benefits of being a part of the Heaven Earth

Church community is our Sunday morning conversations taught by founding

pastor Ross Stackhound.

You can watch and participate in the Sunday morning conversation

this Sunday morning, 9:30am Eastern time at YouTube.com heavenerthchurch.

The audio version of the Sunday morning conversation is available

here on the podcast, which you can find at Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

and on the website, which is heavenearthchurch.org now from the

message series, eliminating hurry, putting the unhurried life

into practice is Heaven Earth Church.

Pastor Ross Stackhouse.

Help us now to hear your voice, God.

Not just here, but also when we go out of this place and the places

where we live, work, learn and play, help us to be aligned in the

name of Jesus.

Amen.

Hey, I want to open with this question.

Do you feel like your schedule is aligned with your values?

Do you feel like your schedule is aligned with your values?

Anyone can go first.

Yeah.

So your work interrupts your value of being present with your

family.

Okay, thank you.

Not enough.

Okay.

Melissa.

Yeah.

For Melissa.

Depends on the day.

That's what I'm asking for here.

You know, think about the last seven days.

How did you spend your time and your energy?

So schedule is not just a quantity thing, it's a quality thing.

How did you spend your time and your energy, and was that aligned

with your values?

Now, some of you might be going, what are my values?

Oh, aha.

We've talked about this before.

If your mission is kind of why you exist, what you're here for,

what your purpose is, your values are the boundaries within

which you're willing to travel for your purpose outside of which

you're not willing to travel, I'll give you an example.

One of my missions in life, I just want to help people know Jesus

and be his apprentice.

It's really that simple.

I want to help break down the barriers that have kept people from

knowing Jesus as savior and Lord.

And even as I say that, you're like, oh, savior, that word's got

baggage for me.

That's what I'm here for.

But if I pursue that mission in a way that has me not giving my

wife and my children the best of my time and energy, my schedule

is not aligned with my values because that's value number one for

me.

In.

Terms of how I spend it.

What about you?

Is your schedule aligned with your values, the quality and quantity

of your schedule?

Adam, My values conflict.

Say more about that.

Adam.

I.

So you have values, but they're not.

They're not equal.

Like, there are values that are, you hope are kind of take priority

for you and sometimes that maybe a lower value creeps up above

in the way that you spend your time.

Yeah.

What else?

Bobo.

We asked off that point.

I asked you a few weeks ago to write down the three things that

are most important to you.

And then I asked how many of you wrote you on that list?

And it was around maybe 5 to 10% of the room.

But so I've been saying this recently for myself.

It's hard for sick people to make healthy decisions if our schedule

is making us sick.

If we have hurry sickness, it is hard for us to make healthy, aligned

decisions.

Let's go forward on this quote here.

I mentioned it a few weeks ago.

We've been in this series talking about, inspired by John Mark

Comer's book, the Ruthless Elimination of hurry.

It talks about hurry sickness.

We spent a couple of things, weeks, really slowing down with the

problem, diagnosing that problem, and how our pace, our schedules

are doing violence to our souls.

Our souls need desperate mending because we are so hurried

and so distracted.

We've been talking about those two themes together.

Not just hurry, but distraction.

How many of you right now are struggling to be present?

Right.

Our attention span, we showed it like, let's see if I can find

it.

Well, we shall see.

Yeah, there it is.

Research says we now have less of an attention span than a goldfish.

As of several years ago, it was about eight seconds.

We can pay attention for eight seconds.

And then we're like squirrel.

And so being present is really, really hard for us.

And so we've been talking about that problem in the last few

weeks.

We've been talking about the solution.

I brought up this quote, too.

This is why one of the reasons that we've brought it up is this

quote, right Here.

For many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce

our faith.

It's that we'll become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied

that we will settle for a mediocre version of it.

We will just skim our lives instead of actually live them.

Anybody feel like you're skimming your life?

So the next two weeks are all about, like, super practical stuff,

like how do we actually implement the unhurried life?

And so today I'm going to tell you that I'm going to give you something

like this.

Hopefully better than that.

If you're like, you're going to give me a little weird pyramid

looking trellis thingy.

No, here's what I mean.

If I can find it.

Nope, nope, nope.

No, it's not in here.

Forget it.

We're going to talk about something called a rule of life.

Have you heard of that before?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Has anyone heard of a rule of life?

We got.

I think we got the secret of life.

It is not the secret of life.

It is the rule of life.

How many of you get are like super excited at the term rule of

life?

Yeah.

Yeah.

We came to church today and talked about a rule of life.

It was.

It was awesome.

How many of you get excited about rules?

Rules are suggestions.

Bobo says, I thought I put this in there, but I'll try to find

it really quick.

Nope, that's not it.

Give me just a second.

It's worth it.

I think it is, anyways.

Well, essentially, rule, that word really has more to do with a

structure in the original language.

In its Latin root, it's a structure that helps your life to

be sound and to bear the weight of your life so that you're

producing and being able to bear the weight of the fruit that

you are destined and created to bear.

So if we're running around, hurry, sick and distracted all the

time, we are not going to have a structure that holds us up, but

we're going to have a structure that eventually has us

falling on our faces, exhausted and probably needing some

extra care.

That happened to me in 2023.

Anybody?

It's happening to you right now.

You feel like you're so exhausted, so hurried, so distracted

that you're like, I just feel like I need to sleep for four days.

So what I'm going to do today is give you a tool that if you work

it, it works.

As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, you could take what I'm

going to give you today and say, thanks, Russ.

Back to my day.

So I'm going to Offer you a tool if you don't use it, I love

you.

If you use it, I think it's going to help you not just heal from

hurry sickness, it's going to place you more in the presence of

the One who created you.

So that's going to heal you from the inside out, but it's also

going to give you strength to not go back to hurry sickness.

If we stay in our pace, how can we be in the presence of the

One in Whom we live and move and have our being?

As Paul says, if we're strapped and working all the time,

how can we be in the presence of the One who knows our souls best?

So I want to give you a rule to follow.

Exciting?

Not so much.

But first I want to just say kind of a why?

I want to give you like the foundation for this.

So first of all, this I know I have this.

Jesus says this in Matthew 6, 33 and 34.

Instead, desire first and foremost God's kingdom and God's

righteousness.

And all these things will be given to you as well.

So I asked, is your schedule aligned with your values?

Jesus is saying, make value number one.

God's kingdom and God's righteousness, is that value number

one for you?

It kind of.

I went to the original language.

It's kind of like this.

The same word in the Greek that we get.

Kingdom also means like rule, like a ruler.

Jesus is saying, seek first the rule of God, like God's rule

of your life, and seek his rightness, his justice, and all these

other things that you also need.

They'll find their way to you, they will be brought near to you,

they will be added to you.

In other words, Jesus is saying, make your rule of life me.

Because Jesus perfectly embodies God's rule.

Like the way things are in heaven is perfectly embodied in Jesus.

How things are in heaven, that's revealed to us in Jesus.

So Jesus is saying, be present with me.

Make my rule a priority.

Make it value number one.

And it's odd how things are going to come to an order in your

life.

So the rule of life that I'm going to give you this practical

tool, I promise it's not going to stay in a theory level.

This is going to help you address.

It's going to help you think about these questions.

What rules me?

I'm going to read these questions and give you a chance.

I'm going to slow down and give you a chance to think about

it for a minute.

What rules me?

Who rules me?

What support structure rules My life, if I have one at all.

In other words, who are the people that I hang around?

Is it a sustainable and good support structure or is it one that's

going to have me breaking down and disordered?

What is my life organized around?

So I already asked you this.

That one, it's going to answer that question.

It's going to help you with that.

So, last question and then I'm going to give you the tool.

Anybody want to speak to those questions?

Like, this is a safe space.

I'll start as I've been practicing stillness and silence

a lot of the time.

What rules my life is scarcity.

That's what's running the show in my life many days.

This belief that won't go away, that things are really scarce.

Like it is a really not so secure situation.

Things are going to fall apart.

There is not enough.

I am not enough.

I got to bust my tail to make a legacy because that's the point

of life.

Oh, I forgot.

That's also ruling my life.

This belief deep down that the purpose is for me to create a legacy,

that that's what's ruling my life.

What about you Answer any of these questions if you feel so moved.

Bobo?

Yes.

Work is one of the hardest things for humans to keep at bay.

Our work becomes our identity.

It becomes the means through which we fulfill the emptiness that

is deep down.

We become our work.

We are not made for that.

What rules you?

Who rules you?

What support structure rules your life or organizes your life?

What's your life organized around?

I don't know.

I'm just all over the ground.

We better just love our friends and family.

Well, have all the gather gatherings, do all the things.

And I think it's because I faced death so abruptly with a family

member that it was just like I knew they were there with it and

the next day weren't.

And I had all these regrets.

So now I'm just like trying to be death and fall my family members.

So the fear of mortality or the awareness of mortality is the

ruler.

We're either like spending our time running away from it.

What else?

What's ruling your life, Kirsten?

Fear of poverty?

Immortality.

Yeah.

So for you, like, it's a kind of this really difficult web that

you're kind of stuck in that you're afraid of truly, that you're

not just making this up.

Like you've got to work to have enough.

You can't not probably work about it.

The pa.

Yeah.

You got other people to care for.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's not silly.

So one of the things that I'll say is it does us no good to shame

ourselves for our fears.

Our fears aren't silly.

They can actually instruct us.

They can point us toward the light.

You know, those fears are not silly.

They're real.

That may be true.

That may be true.

And that's why I'm going to offer you this tool.

And it's not like the silver bullet to a better life.

But if we want to change our lives, it's going to first take.

We talked about this.

The first step of recovery and healing is always acceptance.

I got a problem, and my willpower alone is not going to be

enough.

It's a spiritual solution which needs a spiritual problem.

But there are also practical things we can do.

That's why I'm moving to the practical stuff today, Tucker.

Thanks for pointing that out, Tuck.

I appreciate that, Jay.

Exhaustion's ruling your life.

Yeah.

Isn't it weird?

It's like we're exhausted, and then we do things that make us more

exhausted.

So the nature of, like.

I'll talk about my mental health.

When I'm struggling with depression, my instinct is to do

things that keep me in depression.

I want to stay in bed.

Keeps me depressed.

I want to isolate from people.

Keeps me depressed.

Mo time.

You have ideas of how you would like to go.

To school?

Yes.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm going to be 40 soon, and I know other people are like, 40, I'm

50.

Or my dad's like, hey, I'm 82, bud.

Like, I'm still like, gosh, I feel like.

Yeah, you're talking specifically about time as it's related

to kind of the goals or vision we have for our life and when we

don't hit those metrics, how it makes us feel.

Yeah.

Anybody else?

Crystal?

Sure.

Thank you for sharing that, Paul.

Can't seem to keep a job and that if you feel like that's hanging

over your head.

Yeah.

Sure.

Yeah.

Thank you for sharing that, Kaylee.

Amen, sister.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Fear of losing control.

Control is.

Is a powerful tool of our egos.

And an ego, again, is just that person we've built to survive.

Just a second, Dina.

No, I'm going to come back to you.

One thing I want to say before, please give me until 10:40

today.

Okay.

Because what we're saying is so important.

Your fears are not silly.

They're not silly at all.

What you're wrestling with is not silly.

Not at all.

Jesus said when he was criticized for walking along somebody

alongside somebody who is sick by the powers that be, he said, it's

not the healthy who need a doctor, it's the sick.

He came to be our doctor.

Many of us aren't going to the doctor and listen to what I'm saying.

I'm not trying to spiritualize everything.

Christianity has an awful track record of that.

Right.

But I wouldn't be here if I didn't come to experience how good

this doctor is.

But because my time was so out of sorts, my schedule so out of balance,

I was disordered.

I have simply been healed in the last 40 days by practicing stillness

and silence every day.

How can it be?

And, yes, that stillness and silence, it doesn't address every

fear that you're talking about.

No way.

But I'm not saying it does.

It's one tool that's part of a greater solution of helping us be

present to the Lord, present to ourselves, and more aligned with

our values.

Dina, go ahead.

Yeah.

When I retire, will I have enough?

Can I ever retire?

Or am I going to work my fingers to the bone forever?

Okay.

Because I want to keep my promise and steward your time well.

I really do.

The rule of life.

This is an ancient practice.

Like there's a Benedictine rule of life.

This is just a structure that can hold you up, help you both make

it to the fruitfulness for which you're created and sustain

the weight of the fruit you will bear.

Yesterday, I harvested one stinking watermelon from my watermelon

plant.

The rest of them stunk.

Oh, man.

I got a picture.

Bo is going like this.

It was one.

And every year I've done watermelons, I cut into them just

too early.

This one, we cut into it and it was so sweet.

I have to learn.

I've done watermelons several times, and, like, they do.

Okay.

But I need to learn how to structure that plant so it can thrive

and the fruit can thrive.

A rule of life can do that for us.

And here's why we need it so bad, is because it helps us pursue

change in a healthy and structured manner.

We are skilled in survival, folks.

It's one of our greatest gifts.

And it works until it doesn't.

We are not made just to survive.

You know what I'm going to say?

We're made to what?

Yeah, that's true, actually.

Not just a cliche.

So if you go to.

I can.

I will send this out via email.

So if you're not on our email, get on it, because I'm going to send

out this tool on there.

I'm sending out three different ways you can approach the

Rule of life tool.

So here's what it does.

The one that I crafted is a simpler one.

If you go to Church center right now, for once, I'm encouraging

you, go ahead and open up your phone.

This guy talked about distraction and then said, open up

your phone.

What an idiot.

If you go to the homepage of Church center, make heaven, earth

Church, your church.

Go to the homepage.

There are three tools that are Rule of Life tools.

I will send it out via email as well.

If you're like someone I grew up with, you're like, that's no chance.

You better print that thing out for me.

Come tell me.

I'll print it out for you.

There's one that says, a simple guide to a rule of life.

I'm going to fix that link.

It's not the one.

It goes to the workbook.

It is a Google Doc that I came up with.

I will fix that.

First, you have questions that you sit with.

Again, it works if you work it before it's going to.

This tool will help you build a schedule that is aligned with your

values.

That's what this tool is.

If you're like, ross, you haven't said what a rule of life

is.

Darn it.

It's helping you build a schedule that is aligned with your

values.

So for the one that I made, which I'm going to share, the link

is not correct.

But the other two help in the same way.

My questions ask you to first sit down before you make your schedule

and identify your purpose and values.

Some of you haven't done that work yet.

I hadn't done it until a few years ago.

What's my purpose?

And it is.

If you're on the home page of Church center, there are.

It says right under the picture, it says, here are a few

resources to help you build a rule of life.

If you're like, ross, you've tried to get me to use Church Center.

I refuse.

Okay, that's weird.

Yep, right there.

See those?

One, two, three.

That's it, Ross, we hate Church Center.

I'm going to send it out via an email, too.

Okay, so when you go to this, if you use this document, first,

block out time, make some alone time, or do it with somebody

else, do it with a group.

What's my purpose?

Is one of the questions you'll sit with.

What are my values?

Is another question you'll sit with.

What are my gifts?

What are my limitations of body, relationships, time?

What goals do I have for the next season?

And then you'll have some questions to take inventory of your

relationship with Jesus.

And then finally, after you've done that, say after.

You're not going to leap to action, right?

Because we are great survivalists.

We leap to action to get quickly to a goal, to get out of

our problem, and we end up back in the problem.

Can I get an amen?

The four rooms of change are Contentment, Denial, Confusion, Renewal.

Contentment, Denial, Confusion, Renewal.

You can't skip over the confusion room.

The decor of that room is anxiety.

Don't skip it.

Then you'll see a table that has.

You build your schedule.

What do I want to do?

Daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally.

And there are categories for areas of your life.

What I want to do daily to fix my eyes on Jesus and live by his

spirit.

Weekly and seasonally, you can fill that in.

Investing intentionally in core relationships and community,

stewarding your mind and mental health, stewarding the gift

of your body, work practices, financial practices and other.

You work through the questions and then you fill out this document

to build a schedule that aligns with your values.

Are you with me?

It works if you work it.

If you say, ross, great sermon, or that sermon sucked, I'm

out.

That's up to you.

I'm not gonna be like, joanna, you didn't do the Rule of Life tool.

What a loser you are.

No, no.

Us, because no.

Okay, last thing.

There are two other resources from practicingtheway.org if you

think my tool stinks, use the other ones.

I have an account with practicingtheway.org it's from John

Mark Comer.

There is a Rule of Life Builder Interactive.

Then he has a Rule of Life workbook.

Ross, you didn't give us practical enough material.

This time you're wrong.

I've given you the tools.

I am going to do it, too.

And I'm telling you, Emily.

This is news to Emily.

Don't be mad.

I wondered this week if we may organize a Rule of Life retreat,

like on a Friday night, Saturday morning, where we create

the space for you.

To.

Help you identify your purpose, your values and build a

schedule that is aligned with your values.

If you'd be interested in all that, send me a text or an email

that just says interested or come tell me, because if we have

enough interest, we'll do it.

A Rule of Life retreat.

Okay, I'm done.

That was an abrupt end, wasn't it?

Yeah, Ulima.

Yeah.

Rule of Life.

Yulima just said, my greatest fear is that I will go up to Big

Sky.

I like that.

It's like Montana, like heaven is like Montana.

I can dig that.

And I will not have walked out my purpose.

This tool helps you do that last thing.

Warning.

When I wrote out my values, I saw how I was in violation of all

them.

It's okay.

Guess what's happened over the last two years?

I've started slowly to get in line.

I practiced Sabbath again yesterday.

I took my kids to the playground.

Left my phone in the car on Saturdays, folks, if you text me,

odds are I'm not answering.

All right, I'm getting in line.

I'm getting aligned.

You can too.

You can win back your life.

You can.

All right, let's pray.

Lord, help us to structure our lives first and foremost with the

same power that rules heaven.

May it rule us.

We're asking that the same power that rules heaven would rule

our lives.

Let it be, O God, and help us to know our values, to have clarity

from on high about our values, the ones that you've uniquely crafted

for us according to how we're made.

And then, Lord, help us to schedule our lives, structure our

lives in a way that's aligned with our values.

In Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for participating in the conversation happening at Heaven

Earth Church.

Your next opportunity to do so live is this Sunday morning, 9:30am

Eastern Time, either at the main campus at 3, 309 East Main in

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You can always find out more by going to the church website heavenearthchurch.org

we.

Want to thank you for spending time with us today.

My name is Ross Stackhouse, the pastor to Heaven Earth Church

and you may think out there that your story is over, but in fact

your faith story may just be beginning.

If you want more information about our church or you're interested

in the next step, you can go to heavenearthchurch.org otherwise

we look forward to being with you next time at the Heaven Earth

Church Podcast.

SA Sa.