Book SummaryThe Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, by John Mark Comer

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry

You wake up, gulp down your coffee while speed-reading the news, and half-listen to a podcast during your rushed morning commute. You spend your workday juggling tasks before finally returning home and sinking into the couch, your brain fried and your heart pounding.

If any aspects of this scene describe your typical day, you know what it’s like to rush through life. In The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, pastor and author John Mark Comer explores our cultural obsession with rushing and examines how it harms our relationships, health, and spirituality. He argues that you can escape this culture of rushing by following the lifestyle of Jesus.

John Mark Comer is the author of six books on Christianity and...

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry Summary What It Means to Rush Through Life

According to Comer, busyness can be either negative or positive. He draws a distinction between what we’ll call a lively lifestyle (positive busyness) and a rushed lifestyle (negative busyness):

• When your life is lively, it brims with meaningful experiences. Comer presents four criteria that characterize meaningful experiences: They 1) nurture your spirituality, 2) deepen your relationships, 3) support your health, and 4) cultivate your sense of purpose.
• When your life is rushed, it’s packed with meaningless experiences—time-consuming tasks that distract you from meaningful experiences.

(Shortform note: Busyness may have additional benefits beyond those Comer explores: Specifically, busyness may improve cognition and increase self-control. One study found that busy people tend to score higher on cognitive tasks, such as tasks related to memory, compared to people who are less busy. Another study found that reminding people about their busy lifestyle [increases the likelihood that they’ll make decisions that benefit them in the long...

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry Summary Why We Rush

Why do we live rushed lifestyles? Comer says that our culture values speed, and this value compels us to rush. Our culture surrounds us with messages that it’s better to be fast than slow. We internalize these messages and arrange our lives to match the speed of the world around us.

For instance, consider the popularity of apps designed to help you maximize your efficiency and productivity at work. These apps send the message that productivity and efficiency are better than working at a relaxed pace. When you download and use them, you reinforce this value and speed up the pace of your life.

How Widespread Is the Tendency to Rush?

Comer says that everyone is surrounded by messages that speed is better, internalizes these messages, and designs their lives to prioritize speed. However, Comer doesn’t explore counterexamples that suggest the pace of life and its associated values aren’t universal.

Although a fast-paced lifestyle may be prevalent in some places, some people have historically valued a slow pace of life and continue to do so. For instance, [barakah culture is an Islamic lifestyle that values slowing down and simplifying your...

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry Summary The Four Perils of Rushing

Comer argues that over time, rushing has the opposite effect of meaningful experiences: Rushing degrades your relationships, spirituality, health, and sense of purpose. Let’s explore each of these perils.

Peril 1: Weak Relationships

According to Comer, it’s impossible to maintain strong, loving relationships when you live a rushed lifestyle. Here, we’ll highlight two ways that rushing harms your relationships.

First, rushing makes you stressed, and this stress makes you less patient and gentle around your loved ones. Over time, this behavior strains your relationships. For example, imagine your partner tries to strike up a conversation while you’re rushing to leave for work and you snap at them for interrupting you. To avoid being snapped at again, they strike up fewer conversations with you. As a result, over time, the two of you talk less and thus grow distant.

(Shortform note: Some psychological research supports Comer’s claim that stress harms your relationships and provides additional reasons for this effect. First, a...

The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry Summary The Remedy: Follow Jesus’s Lifestyle

Now that we’ve explored the perils of rushing and why we rush, let’s turn to Comer’s solution. He argues that you can prioritize meaningful experiences and commit to a life free of rushing by following the lifestyle of Jesus. According to the Bible’s four gospels—which amount to Jesus’s biography—Jesus had a lively lifestyle, not a rushed one.

(Shortform note: Scholars debate whether the gospels are an accurate biography of Jesus. For instance, in Zealot, Reza Aslan argues the gospels may not be trustworthy because they were written years after most of the events they detail. Aslan says that according to other historical records and accounts of Jesus’s life, Jesus was likely more of a radical revolutionary than the gospels depict him to be. By contrast, in The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel shares Comer’s view that the gospels are biographies of Jesus. Citing research by Craig Blomberg, Strobel says that three of the four gospels do count as trustworthy eyewitness accounts because...

Shortform Exercise: Make a Plan to Be Less Rushed

Comer says that our rushed lifestyles harm our relationships, spirituality, health, and sense of purpose. Reflect on the extent to which your lifestyle is rushed and craft a plan to make your life more lively.

In what ways is your lifestyle rushed? Recall that rushing is when you’re engaged in meaningless activities that distract you from meaningful ones. (For instance, perhaps you’re addicted to online shopping, which leaves you less time for meaningful activities such as spending time with family.)