Every now and then, a listener or two will reach out to me with this one specific piece of feedback: I’m talking too fast in a podcast episode. Now, I want to be clear, this feedback absolutely does not come in the form of a complaint; they are simply wanting to make sure I’m okay. They are used to a particular cadence around here, and when they experience that cadence as rushed, hurried, frantic, or frenzied, it becomes cause for concern. So they reach out wanting to check in, maybe offering a few words of peace or comfort. It’s all so very thoughtful, and I am so very grateful for such kind listeners.

I’ll never forget the first time this happened, though. Someone reached out with this “too fast” feedback, and I was so confused. I had no idea what they were talking about. I edit and produce every episode, and during that process, I end up listening to each episode numerous times before it’s officially published. Let me assure you, I become very familiar with the content. And for the life of me, I couldn’t remember anything sounding “off.” But, I started to wonder: Did I accidentally hit something while the episode was uploading that made the whole thing speed up? Is every listener having this experience? If I wasn’t frantic and frenzied before, I was now.

So, I decided to listen one more time on my phone, the same way anyone might listen, and sure enough, the cadence sounded normal. What in the world. Well, not long after, that listener reached out again, and turns out, they discovered they had accidentally adjusted the playback speed on their phone, and the episode was playing a quarter faster than it usually does or is supposed to. Mystery solved.

Now apparently, this is not uncommon. Like I mentioned a minute ago, I still receive similar feedback every now and then. So, a quick reminder in the middle of this remind{h}er, don’t forget to check your podcast speed settings!

I share all this because, one, now it makes me laugh a bit. And two, because I think it highlights an interesting truth: when something feels rushed, it has an effect on us. Whether it’s listening to a podcast episode or maybe even living a life. The cadence, the speed, the pace, matters.

So often in life, at least in Western society, the cadence we think we’re called to match sounds something like this:

Hurry. Hustle. Don’t miss out. Don’t fall behind. Get ahead. Be efficient. Stay busy. Keep up.

Whether we realize or not, this is familiar messaging that’s actually forming us. And it creates an exhausting expectation. It’s a standard we’re striving for, but I wonder if it is the standard we were created for.

Sometimes, I wonder if this familiarity with hurry and hustle might be rooted in the belief that something is at risk. Now sometimes, there are actual risks. By all means, if there is an actual, literal emergency, we should move swiftly. But when our overall pace of life is dictated by perhaps a risk or fear that we’ll miss out, or be left behind, or somehow lose our value and worth, well, we’re being driven by something that just isn’t true.

Rarely do we take the time to consider the effects of our pace, what’s really at risk when we move through life too quickly. What we might be missing, overlooking, or neglecting. How the pace we’re choosing might be damaging, maybe even suffocating, our very own souls. Deep down, I wonder if we can tell something is off. I wonder, if maybe, we aren’t meant to hit fast-forward.

There’s a familiar passage found in Matthew 11:28-30. It’s one I’ve referenced before way back in remind{h}er 41. But today, I’d like to return to it, this time reading from The Message translation:

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

One thing I love about Eugene Peterson’s translation here is the invitation to walk with Jesus; not to run, not to stop completely, but to walk and to work—steadily and purposefully—at a pace that matches “the unforced rhythms of grace.”

If we look at the life of Jesus, he was rarely, if ever, in a hurry. His schedule was interruptible. He often embraced the invitation to linger. It wasn’t that he was drifting about aimlessly; his life certainly had direction and purpose. But he wasn’t rushing through, wasn’t driven by pressure or fear or expectation or ego. Instead, he was attuned to and drawn by the Spirit, willing to trust and match that steady, unforced pace. A pace that was and is good for the soul.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to settle in and match that pace too, the pace of the Spirit. A pace that, as author Emily P. Freeman coined, “creates space for our souls to breathe.” And I wonder what it might look like to move through life at a Spirit-led pace.

Per usual, I can’t answer that for everyone. But I’m learning that a good place to start might be actually, physically, literally, embodying a slower pace.

In his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, John Mark Comer suggests that one way to practice this might be to slow down while we’re driving in our cars. Literally. For instance, maybe we practice driving the speed limit on purpose. He also suggests maybe intentionally getting into the slow lane on the highway. He writes, “Settle in. Feel the wheel, the road. Watch the scenery pass. Use it as a chance to practice presence—to God, to the world, to your own soul.” What an interesting suggestion: using something literally created to speed things up, to help us learn how to slow down.

Another slower-pace practice to consider might be literally walking. Whether it’s intentionally parking further away in order to walk more, or simply taking a walk in your neighborhood, walking can help slow the pace of our souls. In his book, God Walk, pastor, author, and professor Mark Buchanan puts it this way:

Some of us walk because it’s magic and beautiful and mysterious… We walk because we see things differently when we walk. We feel more deeply, think more clearly. We walk to figure things out. We walk to sort ourselves out. We walk to get in shape. We walk to get a sense of the scale of things — the bigness of trees, the smallness of beetles, the real distance between places. We walk because we experience land and sky and light in fresh ways…

We walk because three miles an hour, as the writer Rebecca Solnit says, is about the speed of thought, and maybe the speed of our souls. We walk because if we go much faster for much longer, we’ll start to lose ourselves: our bodies will atrophy, our thinking will jumble, our very souls will wither.”

Physically slowing down, maybe in the car or on foot, can help us remember to monitor the speed settings of our lives, if you will. It creates an awareness within that seeks to match the pace of the Spirit, the speed that is best for our souls.

Today, if you’re feeling the anxiety of hurry and hustle, remember that it’s okay to slow down. In Jesus, there is no rush, no pressure, no lack, no fear. No one is left behind. Together, may we choose a Spirit-led pace, learn the “unforced rhythms of grace” and trust the cadence of the Kingdom of the God.