Regret has a way of sneaking up on us, not because we don’t know better, but because we’re moving too fast to notice we’re headed the wrong way. This week, we continued our series on regret by asking a simple but piercing question: What’s the hurry? It turns out that the rush we treat as a badge of honor might actually be the very thing setting us up for a lifetime of looking back and wishing we’d done things differently. Hurry Feels Like Progress, But It Isn’t We live in a culture that treats busyness as important. If you’re hurrying, you must matter. But Scripture tells a different story. Proverbs 19:2 warns that “the hasty miss the way,” and Proverbs 21:5 reminds us that “haste leads to poverty.” Even our tempers aren’t safe from it—James 1:19-20 says we should be “quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry,” because rushed reactions rarely produce the righteousness God desires. Hurry doesn’t buy us more time. It just manufactures more regret. A survey of 95-year-olds once asked what they’d change if they could live life over again. The overwhelming answer wasn’t about chasing bigger achievements. It was slowing down. Reflecting more. Enjoying friends and family. Nobody wished they’d hurried faster. Even Jesus, Who Had the Most to Do, Was Never Rushed If anyone had reason to hurry, it was Jesus. His public ministry lasted only three years, and the Gospel of Mark moves at a breathless pace, using the word “immediately” 41 times. Yet Jesus Himself was never in a hurry. In Mark 6:30-31, after His disciples returned exhausted from ministry, so swamped by crowds that they didn’t even have time to eat, Jesus told them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Even in the middle of extraordinary demand, He modeled rest over rush. If Jesus didn’t need to hurry to accomplish God’s purposes, neither do we. Stillness Isn’t Wasted Time, It’s Where Wisdom Lives Breaking the habit of hurry starts with a hard first step: stop. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” That stillness isn’t laziness, it’s a declaration that we trust God with what we can’t control. From there, the second step is to follow Him at His pace, not our own. Psalm 23:2-3 pictures God as a shepherd who “makes me lie down in green pastures” and “leads me beside quiet waters,” refreshing our souls and guiding us on the right path. That’s not the frantic pace of hustle. It’s the steady, purposeful pace of trust. Jesus extends the same invitation to every one of us who feels worn out by the pace we’ve set for ourselves. In Matthew 11:28-30, He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Following Jesus doesn’t mean doing nothing. It means trading our chaotic hurry for His purposeful, peace-filled pace. That shift starts with trusting Him. Scripture says that “while we were yet sinning,” Jesus stepped into our chaos and died on the cross so we could have life to the full. Faith in Him isn’t just the doorway to eternal life, it’s the doorway to a slower, wiser, more regret-free way of living right now. So this week, take an honest look at your own pace. Are you rushing through decisions, relationships, or even your time with God because you’ve bought into the lie that hurry equals significance? Ask yourself the question we’ve been asking all week: what’s the hurry? Then take a real step toward stillness. Slow down long enough to hear from God, and choose to follow His pace instead of your own. If this message challenged you, share it with someone who needs to hear that slowing down isn’t falling behind, it’s actually the path to a wiser, more meaningful life.
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TWL - 7DeadlySins- S8E2