We’re busy and getting busier every year. The technologies that were supposed to simply our lives and connect us to others have accomplished the opposite – they’ve complicated our lives and distanced us from others. There’s more and more to put on the schedule. There’s always the next goal to pursue, the next invitation to figure out how to politely decline, and the next series to stream. The results of our frenetic pace of life aren’t good. People are tired. People are exhausted. This series is about regaining the rhythms of Jesus.

In 1967, a Senate subcommittee was told that by 1985, the average American would work only 22 hours a week for 27 weeks a year. Well, we can maybe give them an “A” for effort? It would have been impossible for them to imagine the frenetic pace of life today – a pace that is suffocating our souls. Let’s pull back the curtain and see how society led us to the place of busyness – and recognize the toll it is extracting from us. Finally, we’ll see the gracious invitation that Jesus extends to us. To enter the easy burden of his yoke. To join him in his unhurried approach to life. And to put an end to the frenetic pace of hurry in our lives today.

A few of us are old enough to remember a thing called “boredom”. That was from an era before we had infinity in our front pockets. Today, there’s almost no place to be alone with your thoughts anymore. Our minds have been conditioned to avoid silence and deep reflection.

Living in the 21st century has given us so much awareness – awareness of everything that there is to do, see, experience and accomplish. We have more options and more opportunities than anybody before us. And it’s not just schedules that are busy.  Even our unscheduled time is busy. Moses has something to say about making the most of your life. Considering how much he accomplished in his life, he has something important to say about the optimal way to make a difference and leave a mark. But his approach is counterintuitive. The way to do and experience and accomplish the most is to embrace your limitations.

In the early 20th century, cocaine was put into products as a way to stay alert. Tobacco companies advertised that doctors used their products to sway customers to believe that their addictive products were safe to use. What we might not notice is that cell phones, social media platforms, and information are the cocaine and tobacco companies of this generation. They are addictive. They can be harmful. They want to enslave you. But God created us to find our freedom in him alone. That’s why he gave his people the Sabbath Day – a weekly celebration of their freedom. The reason why we are overwhelmed with busyness isn’t because we work too hard. It’s because we don’t know how to rest, and how to find our rest in God.