Incompatibility

Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don’t have. 

–John Ortberg

     During the readings for one of my classes, this quote came up. The more I think about it, the more I agree with it. I constantly feel rushed, hurried, bound by deadlines and time management. I think it is important to have a schedule and a plan, but I am always desiring more time to spend with people. I truly value long talks with people or just simply spending time together. Valuing a person means investing in their lives whether through hearty laughs or many tears. The one thing relationships need is time. I wouldn’t know my closest friends as well as I do unless I had spent countless hours with them. Now on the other hand, I would probably know many people more deeply if I invested more time in them.

     As a college student, time is something I deeply value. When I get a free moment, I like to be alone and cherish that moment. However, I think there are times where I should stop the rushing and the feeling of being bound by my schedule, and just let others have my time. When put in perspective, my time is both extremely valuable and completely meaningless. Valuable because my life is so very short, and I want to make my minutes count for something. It could be meaningless because, when compared with eternity, it is a short span in an endless abyss. Yet that is even more of why I should give my time away. I should not give it carelessly, but with the deepest care for others. If I will truly love others, I will reject the strangling grip of being hurried!

     The time is so short. I have a mere seven weeks left before the end of my freshman year of college. It seemed like the year would take so much time, but now I am almost to the end and I don’t know where it all went. I have many friendships I am extremely thankful for. Countless people have invested in me, and I have been privileged to get to know many of the other students in my class. I praise God for the deep friendships I have, and I ask Him to teach me more of what love is. I ask Him to take away my sense of hurry, and replace it with deep love.