From the time you hit the floor running in your favorite hospital delivery room, speed has been a great concern. Not to you…not in the beginning at least. But, most of the proud comments about you focused on speed. How fast you were gaining weight; how much faster your rate of gain was compared to the baby in the next crib; how quickly you began cutting teeth (and granny’s finger at the same time); how early you began to say those first few words. Parents long to hear words like “ma-ma” or “da-da”; outsiders hear grunts and groans. And, of course, how fast you began taking those first few stumbling, bumbling steps. “Look how quickly he learned to walk,” parents say. The fact that you were supported by a coffee table, two chairs and four adults didn’t seem to dampen their enthusiasm.

Since your earliest days, people around you have been concerned with the speed with which you got things done. You were encouraged to: hurry to the store and back; hurry home after school because there was work to be done; hurry and run an errand for mom or dad. Right? One possible exception to the expectation of speed involved the family automobile, but then you probably already know about that!

Unfortunately, parents (and society) often push their children to grow up too quickly. I know of little girls who get all decked out in heavy make-up, pantyhose, dangling earrings, high heel shoes – getting ready for a “date” at the age of eight! The pictures of the little girl from Boulder, Colorado who dressed and acted like a 20 year old woman made most of us sad. Must our children grow up so fast?

Society urges us to hurry. Many athletic contests are based on speed. Many of the tests we take in school have a time limit set for completion. We are barely out of diapers when parents, teachers, and counselors are all urging us to hurry and get ready for college. We get a job. Next, we’re concerned about how fast we can move up the ladder and become president of the company.

We buy newer and bigger computers. Not because our present one is worn out, but because it’s not fast enough. My first modem was 300 baud. Now, my modem’s speed is 33,600. My son in Atlanta just had a cable installed that will let him send and receive information at one and a half million bits per second.

Many illnesses can be caused by or exacerbated by the pressures to hurry up and get ahead. Many folks take short-cuts in order to climb the ladder of life and get to the top rung quicker than anybody else. Many take short-cuts that land them in jail! Others find out that while they got to the top rung ahead of everybody else, they had their ladder leaning against the wrong wall!

Directions Count Too!

Just about everyone we know urges us to take off and run pell mell down the road of life. After all, speed’s where it’s at, right? WRONG! Speed ain’t everything – direction counts, too! Consider these examples:

1. The mighty Atlas rocket reaches speeds in excess of 25,000 mph. What if it were aimed at Miami instead of the moon? It would never get to the moon and it would make a whole lot of people in Miami just a tad consternated! A mid-course correction burn that lasts just a few tenths of a second can make the difference between landing on the moon or orbiting the sun forever. I’ve never seen the launch of a space shuttle in person, but have seen several from our community 200 miles from Cape Canaveral. Night launches are particularly beautiful!
2. A race car may scream around an oval track in excess of 250 mph. Great, right? Sure is…just as long as it stays on the track, and the tires don’t blow out, and it doesn’t hit an oil slick or another car running in excess of 250 mph!
3. I once saw a man from Australia demonstrate the correct way to throw a boomerang. He launched the boomerang with a twist of his wrist. When the boomerang came back, he commented, “One can throw a boomerang at a fast rate of speed, but if it doesn’t come back, it’s just a stick!”

When’s the last time you literally stopped to smell some roses? When did you last watch newly-hatched chicks through binoculars or a camera tele-photo lens? I’m checking on some nests at a rookery within a few miles of my home. I’m watching Great Blue Herons, Great Snowy Egrets, and Cormorants in their nests. It doesn’t take long and it has very relaxing effect on me. How long since you’ve spent relaxed, quality time doing something by yourself, with your spouse, or with your kids?

Is your life not far more important than a trip to the moon powered by a very fast rocket ship? Other people may pressure you to speed…only you can seek the Lord for direction!

What are the Life Lessons
in this for me?

• Life is going to end for all of us some day.
• After we’ve made sure of our eternal destination, we must certainly take time to enjoy the journey.
• Speed ain’t everything – direction counts whole bunches!

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