What a pleasure to share yesterday with a group of 25 at Evergreen Baptist Church of L. A. for another “An Unhurried Day with Jesus” event. The work God does in us in three hours of solitude and silence is richer and more profound than a week of ministry work.
In our debrief time, I share some thoughts I’ve had on the pace of love. When Paul goes about listing characteristics of love in 1 Corinthians 13, the first word he uses is “patient.” Love is patient. Love is slow. I remembered again Kosuke Koyama’s book, Three Mile an Hour God. I posted a link to a past post quoting him, “Is Jesus Too Slow?” He was a Japanese Catholic theologian who “defended a theology that he considered to be accessible to the peasantry in developing nations, rather than an overly academic systematic theology (Wikipedia).” He died in March at 79. A theme throughout the book is the reality of walking with God. The average walking speed is three miles per hour, hence the title.
God walks ‘slowly’ because he is love. If he is not love he would have gone much faster. Love has its speed. It is an inner speed. It is a spiritual speed. It is a different kind of speed from the technological speed to which we are accustomed. It is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all other speed since it is the speed of love. It goes on in the depth of our life, whether we notice or not, whether we are currently hit by storm or not, at three miles an hour. It is the speed we walk and therefore it is the speed the love of God walks.” (Koyama, Kosuke. Three Mile an Hour God. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979, p. 7.)
How does this strike you? Why not read these words once more, a little more slowly.
In this Advent season, when we mean as Christ-followers to remember His coming, how might slowing down rather the living at “holiday pace” help you remember Him?
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