The World Is Moving Too Fast
And, the Pace Is Killing Us
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There was a time when people walked to town and families sat on porches after supper and simply watched the light disappear. It was the same time when letters took weeks to deliver, and evenings were quiet.
Now most people cannot make it five minutes in silence.
Every spare second gets filled scrolling, streaming, replying, checking, refreshing, and consuming. We move from screen to screen all day long. And now, life itself sometimes just feels weightless and thin.
The strangest part is that we call this progress. We were promised convenience. Instead we became restless. Social media promised us connection, but its become nothing more than a distraction that keeps us from connecting. And, in a technological age that promises efficiency, we seem to all be exhausted.
Most modern people are not carrying heavy loads because they are building cathedrals, raising kingdoms, or surviving harsh winters. They are tired because their minds never stop receiving input.
Noise has become the atmosphere of modern life. Even rest is noisy now.
We watch shows while scrolling on our phones. We listen to podcasts while answering emails.
We have lost the ability to simply inhabit a moment. But, Christians should understand something the modern world has forgotten:
God built limits into creation.
The sun sets. The body sleeps. Fields lie fallow. Men require rest. The Lord Himself established Sabbath, because we are not machines. Our households are not factories. And, our soul was not designed to live in perpetual acceleration.
We need to slow down.
After watching an episode of Pints with Aquinas last week where Matt Fradd interviewed Malcolm Guite, I’ve been thinking about this so much more (btw…as most of you know, I’m very Protestant, but this was a phenomenal podcast episode).
So, grab a friend and smoke a cigar together. Let the conversation wander. Enjoy a pipe slowly instead of treating every moment like it must produce something. Pour a glass of aged whiskey and actually think about the senses you are experiencing: the smell, the smoke, the oak, the years it took to become what it is.
Lift weights until your body remembers it was made to labor. Go for a hike. Run. Walk. Plant something. Cook something. Repair something (I’ll be replacing my brakes and rotors this week).
Read physical books again. Pray slowly. Sit outside in the evening without reaching for your phone every thirty seconds. Do things that either force you to slow down or physically fatigue your body.
Most people today are mentally overstimulated and physically underworked. Their minds race while their bodies stagnate. That is not how man was made to live.
The modern world keeps us trapped in a strange limbo: endless stimulation without satisfaction, constant motion without meaningful labor, and consumption without contemplation.
Learn to be unreachable sometimes. Learn to be still. Learn to breathe again.
Remember that you are human. A frantic civilization cannot remember what life is for.
And many people today are moving so quickly that they are no longer fully present for the lives they are supposedly trying to build.