Christians are overcorrecting the Hustle Market

There is an over-correction in the Hustle Market and Christians are leading the charge.

We are in the process of attempting to ruthlessly eliminate hurry, and to send Hustle to hell for good. We hear buzzwords like “hustle” and “grind” all over the place, since people in business and entrepreneurship are using them for external and internal motivation to stoke their fires to get more done.

Then what do Christians go and do? We wag the finger at all the fun the culture is having. Tisk Tisk Gary Vaynerchuk. Here is a furrowed brow for you Lewis Howes.

Look, I read Soul Keeping too. I love Dallas Willard as well. A desire for a slow, unhurried life is a noble and Godly desire. Over-working is a danger many people can fall into if they aren’t careful.

But why does every millennial in their late twenties to late thirties need to send the idea of Hustle straight to hell?

 

WE FEEL TIRED. BUT ARE WE?

I think it’s because we feel tired. I think we think our tiredness is coming from the hustle and grind of over-work. But let me pose a different cause for our desire to see Hustle go away.

We are NOT tired from our work. We are anxious from over-stimulation. We are being wrung dry, not by our commitment to a singular mindset of hard work in a job or task, but by Youtube video binges. We are being zapped by Instagram. We are drained by meaningless dopamine hits on our iPhones. While some people could be overworking, many likely feel like they are overworking but are actually just experiencing screen exhaustion.

The answer may not be casting out hustle in general. It may be learning how to hustle in the first place. An age of distraction, procrastination and mindless scrolling has caused many of us to think we are working when we are actually just addicted to social media for hours on end.

BY THE WAY, WORK IS A GOOD THING 

Need I remind us that work existed BEFORE the fall of man in Genesis 3? God intended us to work before any sin entered the world. This means work is GOOD, not a burden to avoid. Of course, overwork is a part of the fall, but so is under work.

But haven’t we just lost our ability to sabbath? Isn’t that the problem?

Perhaps some of us have. I have many friends here in San Francisco (and Silicon Valley) who work way too hard and do need to grasp rest as a concept. But many in my generation, the millennial generation, aren’t burning out because of hard work, they are burning out due to overstimulation. Previous generations built our country and established laws were burning out. We haven’t figured out how to light our collective fire.

There are 7 days in a week. All are equally important to God. The sabbath is vitally important and it matters. But we have a generation of people discussing the nuances of sabbath over coffee when we haven’t learned to work the other six days yet.

SLOW IS GOOD. ALWAYS SLOW IS BAD

Slowing down is vital. Always going slow as a response to the hustle movement is not good. Should I say it again? Spiritually slowing down and hearing from God is the goal for us all, but we can miss God is slow seasons just like we can miss him in hurried seasons. Pace is important but it is not the ultimate answer. Let’s not do the common Christian thing and give the over-spiritual answer for a very uncomplicated problem.

Life is best taken in rhythms and seasons, like Jesus.

Contrary to what many people think, Jesus wasn’t ONLY moving slow. Jesus went from healing a guy, to walking on foot for several miles, to being overwhelmed by crowds, to praying for 6 hours, to walking on water, and the list goes on and on.

Jesus had a very busy three years of ministry. He didn’t only relax with his disciples and have spiritual conversations. Many cite his time with the women at the well as a way to slow down and be present with others. That spiritual conversation came in the midst of a 100-200km journey on foot in the desert to Galilee to do more ministry!

Perhaps Christians can learn from the hard work the culture is putting into their craft and search for ways to redeem hustle before we send it straight to hell.

Work harder. Complain less. Pray more. Listen for Jesus in all seasons, not just slow ones.