Book Summary: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
The Author: John Mark Comer
John Mark Comer is Portland, Oregon-based pastor at Bridgetown Church.
In addition to The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, he has written numerous other books, including:
God Has a Name
My Name is Hope: Anxiety, depression, and life after melancholy
Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human
Loveology: God. Love. Marriage. Sex. And the Never-Ending Story of Male and Female
Social profiles:
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Book overview
“The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” meets at the intersection of faith and minimalism, arguing that our consumer-driven, rat-race culture leaves us stressed, sad, and separated from God.
Comer implores us to make space for God—literally and figuratively—by slowing down, spending time with God, and creating space on our shelves and in our brains by rejecting the messaging, clutter, and harried pace that comes with the endless accumulation of “more.”
Implementing a practice of simplicity is easier in some instances than others. Truly observing the Sabbath, for example, means turning off the phone and the TV and spending one day a week being present, grateful, and narrowing our focus to what truly matters.
That’s hard to do.
This book lays out why our culture leaves us distracted, distressed, and discombobulated, and shares answers from the Bible.
Summary of key ideas
Part one: The problem
Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life.
Comer recounts John Ortberg asking philosopher and spiritual leader Dallas Willard what he needed to do to become the person he wanted to be. Willard’s answer gives the book its title: eliminate hurry.
I could relate.
Evil can be far more cunning and subversive than obviously violent or hateful acts. Distraction separates us from ourselves, each other, our destinies, and God.
Starting with the sundial and then the clock, humanity created the artificiality of time. We abandoned our natural rhythms in the name of mechanical efficiency. Rather than becoming more efficient with time as we measured it, we filled it with more.
The internet is destroying our ability to contemplate. We must consciously own and direct our attention in a culture doing everything it can to keep us from doing that. Hurry kills relationships, joy, gratitude, and wisdom.
God is still here, but we are not.
Part two: The solution
Our limitations
Our culture screams at us to “fix” our limitations. Performance reviews highlight where we need to improve, and we try to shore up our weaknesses. While personal improvement is fine and important, we are designed with limitations we need to accept.
This is profound because our culture believes all achievement and self-actualization come from striving. In reality, they come from knowing our limits so we can put our best selves and gifts forward.
Comparison is poison. Few things erode our joy, ramp up our stress, and damage our self-belief like comparison.
We all waste time. That can be okay as long as we make conscious decisions. We need recreation, too.
The secret of the easy yoke
We are invited to stop trying to shoulder everything ourselves—to use brute force and speed to control outcomes we cannot control anyway.
We have help available. But we often accept God in our lives, say we want the lifestyle, and then fail to take the steps.
Part three: Four practices for unhurrying your life
Number one: Silence and solitude
Because of technology, we no longer have the ability, the will, or an appreciation for being in silence.
There are numerous instances of Jesus going off in solitude, whether in the morning to pray or into the wilderness. The wilderness isn’t the place of weakness; it’s the place of strength.
The “eremos” is the quiet place where we reconnect to God. Silence has two dimensions: external quiet and our internal chatter. We may use external noise to drown out the internal.
Solitude is not isolation—it is how we open up to God. Isolation is what we crave when we neglect solitude and the conditions necessary to nourish our souls.
Without space for silence and solitude, we feel distant from God and ourselves, anxious and exhausted, and more likely to turn to escapes or temptation.
Number two: Sabbath
Earthly desire is never satisfied; it is the human condition to seek and want more.
We must put earthly desires below God. It is the only way for the soul to rest.
Sabbath means “to stop.” It is both rest and worship, not simply a day off filled with errands and activities. It is also an act of resistance against a culture that demands constant production and consumption.
Number three: Simplicity
Jesus’ teachings on wealth run counter to American society, where achievement and accumulation are presented as the way to happiness.
Rampant materialism isn’t making us happy. The problem isn’t stuff itself; it’s that we put no limit on our desire for more and assume we need far more than we really do.
We cannot serve both God and money. We worry about what we worship, and if we worship money, it will eat us alive.
Minimalism is about decluttering our lives, not just our stuff. Simplicity means intentionally promoting what we value and removing what distracts us from it.
Number four: Slowing
Our schedules should align with our values. Slowing our physical pace, reducing our phone’s role, doing one thing at a time, and creating regular space for solitude can help bring our daily lives back into alignment.
You can grab The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry from Amazon today.
If you enjoyed this summary, visit my book notes page for other book notes, reviews and summaries, including Bob Iger’s Ride of a Lifetime and others.