The "Driven" Life

A few years back we went through a series called “The Purpose Driven Life”. And, while the focus of the series was all about discovering our purpose, I couldn't help but notice the word “driven”. . According to Webster, the word driven means to “keep in perpetual motion” or to “forcibly move onward”. The word driven is language of the modern era. It speaks to us of mechanization. Of rapid velocity and high octane performance.

Fortunately, people are not machines. But, the era in which we live breathes the oxygen of movement, performance and velocity. And, the technology that promised to make life easier, leaving more time for relationships, has strangely and paradoxically made us less human and more mechanized than ever before in human history. Think about it. If we are nothing else today, at least we are in motion, right? When we ask someone how they are, the typical answer. . . "I'm Busy." Busy has become synonymous with importance, competence and efficiency in our time. And, we value busyness. Perhaps we should actually sit back and assess to what end in all this busyness and drivenness is leading us?

Is the abundant life that Jesus speaks of compatible with the busy life that we give so much homage to? It does not seem so. Too often, a body charged with driven-ness and busyness is a body that is continually fighting stress, fatigue and dissatisfaction with life. Certainly, a driven body is one who resists God’s commandments of Sabbath; rest and be still. Moreover, there are a plethora of emotional and physical symptoms that serve as reminders that our body's have become too driven-oriented. Richard A. Swenson M.D., author of “Margin”, points out that the psyche is the point of entry for the insidious stress virus. A few of the symptoms include: depression, withdrawal, mental fatigue, anxiety, negative thinking, paranoia, impatience, apathy, confusion and anger and hostility. And, they told me H1-N1 was bad...

Well, if two or more of these symptoms are characteristic of your life, chances are you got the virus! And, the pain you are experiencing are God's internal indicators that something is off kilter. Listen to what you body.

Solitude, ample time spent alone doing “nothing”, is a great remedy for the driven-virus. Now, right away us driven folks will utter, “I’d love to get away alone, but I have so many things to do!” If you find yourself nodding your head right now and completely agreeing with this statement. . . you got the bug. It's pulsing through your veins.

Remember, Jesus found ample time to be alone. Solitude was his immunity to hurry-sickness. And, remember his mission and task was exponentially greater and more stressful than yours. So, there’s no good reason you can give for not getting time away. It can be done. The important key to remember is that solitude teaches a hyped-up, driven body lessons that it cannot learn elsewhere. We all need down-time. It is a gift from God to our body and our soul.

In tomorrow post we'll muse over three things we learn in solitude that cannot be learned elsewhere.