An Unhurried Life

“An Unhurried Life: Following Jesus’ Rhythms of Work and Rest” by Alan Fadling

I finally finished this book that I have been reading since this past summer. This is book #1 for 2026 (my goal is 12 books for 2026, one book each month – not counting family read-aloud titles).

I thought this book was really dense and I kind of had a hard time getting through it. It was full of really great information, it just took me a long time to read all of it. If you decide to read this book, plan on allowing some time to get through it, and digest all of the dense information packed within its pages.

Here are a few of my favorite passages:

“…God‘s great commandment to us isn’t “Get more things done,” but to love him with the whole of our energies, capacities and passions and to extend that love to others. And love isn’t rushed. The first trait Paul mentioned when he described love in that famous chapter of his is patient (see 1 Cor 13).” pg. 11

“Many of us only feel valuable when we are checking something off our to-do list. We therefore struggle to enter into the gift of rest as a good in itself.” pg. 50

“… I continue to see evidence that our hurry, rather than getting more done, often gets the wrong thing done – and a lot of it! Christ-followers need to slow down enough to listen to the Master for specifics about what it is that he actually wants.” pg. 53

“We find no evidence that Jesus was ever in a rush. In fact, there is more evidence that at times Jesus frustrated his followers because of his lack of hurry. Jesus lived in unhurried and fruitful life. This fact can sound like an oxymoron to us.“ pg. 55

“Our Lord and Savior directs us to care for the person who is actually crossing our path. Proximity provides an opportunity to love.” pg. 80

“Do I choose to learn from and follow the good Samaritan’s example? Or instead am I sometimes so hurried in my efforts to accomplish everything on my agenda, even on my God agenda, that I don’t have time to care for someone in obvious need?” pg. 83

“I’m guessing that every day we miss opportunities to live Christlike life, to offer simple expressions of care, affirmation, encouragement, and recognition to people who cross our paths. We are moving too fast to stop and act and love.” pg. 85

“… could we be running past the work God is giving us because we have a hurried, narrow vision of what we’re “supposed” to be doing?” pg. 87

“We tend to see rest as the place we fall into after we’ve worn ourselves out with work. But what if our best work begins from a place of rest? What if rest takes first priority rather than last?” pg. 110

“The Sabbath is God‘s antidote for our hurried, harried pace of life, and gives us the unhurried one-in-seven rhythm woven into the very fabric of creation. That seventh day is a space for us to enter into needed recovery (and perhaps go through the inevitable withdrawals) from the hurry, drivenness, and workaholism that plague so many of our lives, families, communities, and organizations. On the Sabbath, hurry becomes a vice, the exact opposite of our workaday world’s way of making it a virtue. The Sabbath gives us a holy rhythm designed to slow us so that we might better love God and love others.” pg. 113

“Whenever we find ourselves in a season of waiting or dryness or pruning, and therefore feeling weak and weary, we can learn to be patient as God sensitizes us to the reality of his ever-present grace in the darkness. When we keep our focus on God like that, we can grow in grace despite – even because of – the hardship.” pg. 141

“Christian maturity is not a matter of doing more for God; it is God doing more in and through us. Immaturity is noisy with anxiety-fueled self-importance. Maturity is quietly content to pursue a life of obedient humility.” pg. 161 [from Peterson, Practice Resurrection, pp. 222-23]

Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil. ~ Psalm 37:7-8