Unhurriedness – the key to a rich spiritual life

Early Saturday morning, my wife and I set out on the two‑and‑a‑half‑hour drive to Raleigh for my grandson’s birthday party. As we were getting ready, my wife asked me to sign the card—a simple task that would have taken less than a minute. I brushed it off with, “I’ll do it later.” I felt pressed for time. I had an online class to teach in three hours and was already anxious about traffic, setting up my laptop, and connecting to Wi‑Fi. My dismissive response didn’t land well. She had carried the weight of preparing everything, and signing the card was the least I could have done.

That sense of being hurried is a small but persistent devil in my life. It whispers that I don’t have enough time—not enough time to finish my tasks, not enough time to rest, and certainly not enough time to pray. And when I do pray, it tries to turn my prayer into a mental to‑do list rather than an encounter with God.

There’s a Spanish phrase I love: Hay más tiempo que vida—there is more time than life. Life is short; time is eternal. Make the most of the life you’ve been given. I repeat this to myself whenever my plans get interrupted. God often speaks through interruptions, not agendas. If I’m doing God’s work, then God already knows exactly how much time I have.

Many people I meet in spiritual direction struggle with this.  They are the “heavy lifters” in their churches—the dependable volunteers who embody the saying, “If you want something done, ask a busy person.” Many feel overcommitted. It’s not because God is asking them to do more than they can handle. Instead, they’re trying to meet expectations that aren’t from God at all.

When this becomes clear, the next question naturally arises: “How do I know whether this is what God wants me to do?”

I often invite them to contrast the experience. What does overcommitted feel like? The answers vary, but they usually include weariness, frustration, isolation, and discouragement—along with constant sense of being behind and needing to hurry.  Their prayer is distracted and dry. 

And what does doing God’s will feel like? It may still bring tiredness, but it’s a different kind—sustained by a mysterious energy, marked by satisfaction and connection. Their prayer comes alive. 

When I’m aligned with God’s will, my anxiety about time fades. If this is God’s work, then God knows the time I have. Hay más tiempo que vida.  Focus on life.

Teresa of Ávila offers a grounding reminder in her prayer which she used as a bookmark in her breviary:  Nada te turbe:

Let nothing disturb you, 
let nothing frighten you; 
all things are passing; 
God never changes. 
Patience obtains all things.

It’s a powerful antidote to the hurriedness that so easily invades the spiritual life.