By Steven Norris
The day I received the keys to my first car changed my life. Pulling that 1979 Pontiac Phoenix out of the driveway and onto the road meant a new freedom and a new pace of life. No longer did I need to be picked up for school or to catch a ride to work. I was free to follow my own schedule at my own pace.
I have been pondering the speed of life lately — the relentless onslaught of information and news headlines, the erosion of quiet reflective time as technology has made me perpetually available to others, and the sense that I am slave to my schedule. Does it have to be this way?
The Japanese missionary and theologian, Kosuke Koyama, wrote a series of reflections on the pace of life entitled, Three Mile an Hour God. The title comes from the idea that the average speed of human walking is about three miles per hour. When God took on flesh in the person of Jesus, God came at a time when walking was the primary mode of transportation.
Therefore, as Koyama notes, “Love has its speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice it or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore the speed the love of God walks.”
We live in a “quick-fix society” that prides itself on efficiency and multitasking. Yet, we serve a God who is not afraid of taking the “long way around” in order to shape our hearts and souls for eternity. For example, it didn’t take God all that long to get the Israelites out of Egypt. However, it took forty years of walking in the desert to get Egypt out of the Israelites.
On the cross, Jesus delivered humanity from the kingdom of sin and death through one decisive action over the course of a few hours. Yet, it has taken almost all of human existence to get us to release our death-grip on the kingdom of sin that lives within us.
God isn’t interested in quick fixes. The Kingdom of God is not a “flash in the pan,” but the “slow burn” of world-wide transformation. The Kingdom of God arrives in bread broken and wine shared across the table with neighbors. It trickles in as Christ followers chip away at prejudice and turn enemies into friends. It creeps in through the regular routine of being still and seeking God in prayer. It breaks forth as seeds of the Gospel are planted in our soul and allowed to germinate and grow.
Thirty-plus years after getting that first car, I find myself slowing down these days. I am walking more — preparing myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for a pilgrimage planned for late spring. As I learn to keep pace with this “three mile an hour” God, I find my heart slowly exchanging the exhausting pace of modern life for the God-ordained pace of love. What might the Spirit of God do in you if you chose to “pump the breaks” and simply walk with Jesus on the Way?