麻豆约拍

There used to be a home improvements store near me that had a big green button in one of its departments. If no assistant was present, you pushed the button which set off a timer, and if you weren鈥檛 served within 60 seconds, you got a discount on your purchase. We the customer mustn鈥檛 be kept waiting! With its speedy service, most of us like playing the customer in this scenario. But I think we also play the assistant, who comes rushing around the corner, flush-faced and out of breath to attend to us. I think we play her when we worry over our burgeoning inbox or feel overwhelmed by our to-do lists. A sense of rush can pervade so much of our lives.

Experts say this modern sense of rush is the result of two things. One is the invention of the clock. While time was once measured by a sunrise and sunset, the tick-tock division into hours, minutes and seconds brought a precision that鈥檚 been great for train timetables but stressful for shop assistants. A Filipino saying describes westerners as 鈥減eople with gods on their wrists.鈥� Our watch now often becomes our master. The second reason for our rush, they say, is a loss of belief in an afterlife. The idea goes that if our few years on earth are all we think we have, we can grow anxious about getting everything done, trying to pour an ocean鈥檚 worth of living into a bucket鈥檚 worth of days.聽

There are practical things we can do to reduce our sense of rush. I鈥檝e turned off my phone notifications and hidden the clock on my desktop鈥攎y equivalent of taking the god off my wrist鈥攁nd I try to be patient when stuck in the slow queue. But it鈥檚 that idea of an afterlife I鈥檝e been thinking about lately. Jesus promised an afterlife to his followers鈥攐ffering to trade our bucket鈥檚 worth of days for an ocean鈥檚 worth of eternity. If that鈥檚 true, then I have all the time in the world to get everything done. I start each day with a to-do list and believe time management is wise. But when my days are full of rush I鈥檓 discovering this: It鈥檚 a powerful thing to take my eyes off the clock and see this moment in light of eternity.