Slow Down

When we slow down enough to see what we are passing by it’s interesting. I flew out of the cities this morning early with Ethel and Louise (crutches) . I will have surgery in a few weeks to scope and scrape (my medical jargon) but until then, we will celebrate Tyler’s seminary graduation and I will go slow. Going slow, is kind of a necessity but it’s kind of nice.. nice and slow.

Our culture is a quick culture. Go fast, go often, go past, move over slow people, use the right lane, set the cruise and don’t look back to see who you have run over. After all, they were in the way!

Jesus is counter culture and asks us to pull over and let people go by not simply because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s when we notice things. I saw things this morning- like the little boy that hadn’t probably seen crutches before. The older woman who had sad eyes. We hear conversation when we slow down and pull back the volume on the world around us. With the air pods, the headsets and the “entertainment in our hand culture”, we just don’t listen to people, we listen to stuff.

I may be tempted to do that but I can’t walk with crutches and hold my phone watching a movie at the same time. Perhaps it’s better said “I don’t want to do that”. I want to look in people’s eyes. I want to smile at the dad holding that newborn so gently as if she was a china doll so he knows I think he’s awesome. I want to see the little girl grabbing at her daddy’s hand and talking non-stop. If I wasn’t listening, I might miss the sound of the moving sidewalk, and they do make noises. I almost kissed the rubber belt as it carried me much farther with less work on my part. Some were walking fast on the moving sidewalk. Others were standing like me, to the right like the sign says, and watching people and smiling. I didn’t have my ear buds in. I had my ear-God in.

I began to Pray for people whom I passed. I prayed for people that were looking unhappy. I smiled at the many faces that now without masks one can engage easier. We might be total strangers, but yet, for a moment, being kind and noticing the existence of another is what kindness is all about.

Jesus did that well. He noticed people. He listened to the world going on around him. He engaged in conversation in the oddest of places. No, not an airport or an airplane but if they existed in his day, he would have. He would have helped carry my bag, like a gal did in Minneapolis. He would have pushed the wheelchair transports and asked them where they were going. (No- I didn’t take a ride) He would have smiled at the mom calling, “Finley, focus, 1,2, 3. ” Jesus would have unplugged as they say in our culture and listened to where he could just say a word, or plant a seed, or pick up on a conversation or… You get it- Jesus slowed the world down and got on it’s speed to love us.

And Jesus would have probably given an extra boost of speed to the gal who just ran by trying to make her flight. FYI- if you are going to the airport, and are going to be late, wear shoes that you can run in. Well, except for me. I have the right shoes, just waiting for Jesus and Dr. Jared to work their magic.

Take time today to notice things our culture hurries by. Even if it’s just a flower, or a cloud, or another heart. When we slow down, it’s amazing what we will hear!