Mar 16, 2017 / Life
Speed Bumps
This past week I was driving through my apartment complex and subconsciously began complaining about all the speed bumps.
Nobody likes these things!
It got me thinking…why do we even have speed bumps if we all dislike them? What’s the point of something that’s a complete annoyance every time I drive through the parking lot?
Obviously the answer is that it makes us slow down. But more importantly it makes us do something that we won’t do on our own. If we all obeyed speed limits naturally there would be no need for speed bumps.
I think this same concept carries over to our lives and the pace at which we go through our day, week, and year.
“What keeps us from going too fast in life?”
This is a question I’ve been thinking a lot about. In the same way that speed bumps are needed because we won’t naturally go slow, I think speed bumps in life are needed because naturally I’m going to go too fast.
Here are a couple speed bumps I’ve tried to initiate in my life:
- I try and take at least one day a week where I don’t open up my computer.
- I try and take one day every year as a get-away day with God.
- I try and spend 15 minutes every day to slow down and read a book.
- I try and start every day with a cup of coffee, my Bible, and my journal.
As I look through these I think a lot of my speed bumps involve spending less time in front of a screen. In a digital world it’s so easy for our speed of life to match the speed of the internet.
It’s important to realize that our speed bumps aren’t always going to be things we enjoy. Just like real speed bumps – they’re going to be annoying. There’s a lot of days where I’m annoyed that I am making myself read. Almost every weekend I want to open my computer to do something but I have to stop and realize that if I do that I’ll probably end up working for a few hours.
There’s always going to be something new to chase after and there’s always going to be something more I could add to my to-do list. It’s important though to make sure that I have speed bumps in place to keep me from going through life too fast.
