The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to stay emotionally healthy and spiritually alive in the chaos of the modern world

The next practice of Jesus which Comer enjoins is that of simplicity, based both on Jesus’s lifestyle and on his many teachings on how to live regarding wealth and possessions. Before defining what he means by simplicity, Comer offers a historical retrospective on the way that commercialism has reshaped Western life throughout the course of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

As the United States moved out of a predominantly agrarian economy, powerful forces in politics and media pushed the culture in the direction of a consumer-based economy. This has resulted in a way of life that is geared toward the accumulation of possessions, and this in itself, Comer states (quoting Alan Fadling), is “an engine for hurry” (190). The race to have the next new thing drives the momentum of one’s life, and since there is always another new thing coming down the line, that momentum never abates.

This style of living, however, is in direct contrast with how Jesus lived and taught in the gospels. Comer believes that Jesus’s teachings are not only good in an abstract moral sense, but that they faithfully relate the fundamental operating principles on which the universe runs. Thus, if one is living on different principles, one will quickly find oneself out of harmony with everything else in life. Once again, then, Comer comes back to the themes of The Dangers of a Hurried Lifestyle, now presented as being out of pace with the way life itself works, and that of Apprenticeship to Jesus, in which followers must take seriously his radical teachings on money and possessions.

This leads to Comer’s definition of simplicity, for which he accepts the contemporary self-help term “minimalism” as a useful synonym: “The goal here is to live with a high degree of intentionality around what matters most, which, for those of us who apprentice under Jesus, is Jesus himself and his kingdom” (201). Comer suggests 12 specific applications for his readers, which again points to his sermonic style of writing, in which his years of pastoral preaching have geared him toward specificity in making practical applications for his audience. These recommendations include suggestions to make the readers more aware of the human chain of production and environmental costs of an item before purchasing it, to promote generosity in habits of sharing freely and giving items away, to stick to a budget and to cultivate appreciation for things that cannot be bought—the beauty of creation and the joy of simple pleasures. To any readers that might find such suggestions too difficult to undertake, Comer reminds them that the alternative is likely far more difficult in the end: “Yes, it will cost you to follow Jesus and live his way of simplicity. But it will cost you far more not to. It will cost you money and time and a life of justice and the gift of a clean conscience and time for prayer and an unrushed soul and, above all, the ‘life that is truly life’” (215).

In addition to Comer’s continual thematic presentation of Apprenticeship to Jesus, as noted above, he also weaves in another treatment of the theme of The Importance of Living in the Present Moment. The rampant consumerism of the contemporary world is always trying to draw our attention forward, to the next purchase, the next unfulfilled desire. In contrast, Jesus’s way of simplicity encourages one to focus on living in the present, learning to be content with what one already has, and cultivating a deep appreciation for the richness of natural beauty and relational connection that is available to one’s enjoyment in every moment.