Embracing the Power of Slowing Down: Finding Clarity and Freedom in Life's Pauses

Can a forced slowdown in life be the secret to uncovering what truly matters? As your host, I invite you to explore how altering our pace can transform not only how we see the world but also how we engage with it. Through personal reflections and biblical analogies, we delve into the profound impact of perspective. When illness or unexpected circumstances like traffic bring our fast-paced lives to a halt, we often find surprising clarity and insight. This episode is all about the beauty and necessity of slowing down, and how it allows us to see the details and relationships that are usually overlooked in our rush.

You'll discover how shedding unnecessary burdens can lead to freedom and agility both physically and spiritually. Inspired by the Israelites and 1 Peter 5:7, I discuss how casting our cares upon God can lighten our loads and strengthen our spiritual journey. This episode offers encouragement to rethink your pace and priorities, helping you prepare for a more meaningful and sustainable future. If you're ready to embrace personal growth and achieve a deeper connection with your environment and spirituality, this conversation promises to be an enlightening companion on that path. Join me as we explore how these insights can lead to a more engaged, fulfilling life.

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Chapters

• 0:38 The Importance of Perspective
• 12:01 The Power of Slowing Down
• 18:39 Breaking Free From Heavy Burdens

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

Thank you, welcome back to the All Purpose Pod for an all purpose life. Wherever you are and however you're listening to, they Call Me Mr you and the Inspiration Station. We just thank you for continuing to ride with us on this incredible journey that we're on right now and thank you for the privilege to even be able to talk to you at all the places where you guys are hearing this broadcast. We know that we are actually heard throughout the country and even throughout many parts of the world. So we're pretty excited about the privilege and it definitely is that I just want to take a little bit of time to kind of just walk through something that just has been kind of revelatory for me. That I'm really hoping is going to be a blessing and an encouragement to you because, at the end of the day, all of our episodes, for all of the seasons that we've been doing this, it's really always been about uplifting other people and perhaps shining some light on some things that we need to so we can be the best versions of ourselves and all the areas in our life where we have the responsibility of being that. If you're listening to us audio only wise, apple Podcasts, pandora, amazon Music, iheartradio, pandora. You can definitely find us there. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts. We'd love to have your support there. Thank you for doing that in advance. This video is audio only, so you will not be able to see this on our YouTube channel, but please go to our YouTube channel, youtubecom, at theycallmemisteryou. I would love to have your support and your subscription there and following some of the episodes that we've been putting out there for the past year plus now. Thank you again for all the ways you support us, even our friends that support us financially. There's a lot of technical stuff that comes with producing a show like this, so I thank you for all the financial support as well and all the people who follow us, who subscribe to the show, who download the episodes and listen to them and tell you what they think about them. It means a lot to us. So thank you again for doing that.

Speaker 1: 2:43

I want to talk to you guys a little bit about perspective today. It's a big topic for me because in my situation, I come from a place if you guys know about my history, you know that I come from a place that's fast moving, metropolitan, they kind of do things on 10 all the time and it's kind of the lifestyle. But I wanted to talk about perspective, because you can really miss that if you're not careful. Now there's a lot of things in our world, around us. If you look around at all the outlets where there's media and information and data and news, you can see that a lot of folks have lost perspective. They are responding and reacting, but without perspective. They haven't taken the time to sit soak on the issue at hand, meditate on what it actually means and how it really impacts them, rather than getting swept up in the frenzy that is social media or what have you. But really taking the time to evaluate where we actually are relative to where we need to be Perspective is a funny deal.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Recently, I was filled with a little bit of a sickness. Now, that's probably not abnormal for most of you, but I don't get sick very often, so when it happens, it's a monumental event. I don't try to make it one, but it seems to be made into one with all the factors around me when I am sick, which is rare, but when it happens, it seems to be a big thing and kind of shuts down a lot of other things that are important to a lot of people. But in being sick and being kind of under the weather, if you will. You're forced to slow down and look at things a little bit slower, if I can say that again. What do you see when you're forced to slow down? What do you notice that you didn't notice before? You ever drove down a normal road and you drive down all the time, but instead of a normal 50, 60 miles per hour, now, because of traffic, you have to do 30 to 40 miles per hour. Do you notice how many things you see that you didn't notice before? It could be a fruit tree. It could be a home that's been burned down. It could be a new building that's been put up that you never even paid any attention to before. Little things like that. That happened to me recently in a town where I live in for almost 10 years. On that same road that normally bus past a lot of these things, I was forced to slow down and look at things or notice things I never noticed before and, to be honest, it was enlightening, it was astounding to me. I saw homes I never noticed before. I saw neighbors who I never even paid any attention to. I saw living situations. I saw neighbors who I never even paid any attention to. I saw living situations. I saw new developments. I saw businesses that I might be interested in frequenting, never even knew was there. I normally just zoom right past it.

Speaker 1: 5:58

How many areas have you completely overlooked because you were too busy and for weeks, months, years, you never even noticed it was there, until one day you happen to stumble upon it for some strange reason. How many times have you heard somebody say this? And it's pretty common. They said I never even noticed anything was wrong, I thought everything was fine. I never even noticed anything was wrong, I thought everything was fine.

Speaker 1: 6:25

People who are in long-term marriages have these kind of statements, when things kind of fall out and the D word is on the table and I didn't even notice that he or she was unhappy. I never knew anything was even wrong. I thought everything was fine. Nobody said anything to me. How could I have missed something so big? Well, guess what? Spoiler alert guys, we missed a lot of stuff that's big.

Speaker 1: 6:53

I know you don't want to believe that and you think that you're kind of on top of things and you know there's individual outliers for every circumstance, but in general we miss a lot of big stuff and it's really not something to be proud of. We miss a lot of big things in life because we're so busy on our agenda, so busy in our line of focus we don't even see that something's even really wrong, and that's a tragedy that I think perspective can solve. Being sick and not being able to do the things that you normally do, not being able to be on the so-called grind that you're normally on, you are forced to slow down. So, in effect, you can, at some point, speed up again and pick up speed, pick up pace again, but it's always so important to slow down and evaluate what's going on, what's happening, what's not happening. Perspective is such a huge deal but so important to all of us. If you're involved in any kind of endeavor, missions, any kind of projects or entrepreneurship, man, perspective is so key. If you think it's all about what you're doing and you get into the finish line of your plan and not realizing that maybe this doesn't impact the people you want it to impact, maybe it doesn't do all the things you want it to do, or maybe your target audience doesn't care about this thing as much as you do. There's so much to ponder, so much to think about.

Speaker 1: 8:28

Now I fancy myself as an observant person. I grew up and I mean that quite literally. My wife still laughs about it to this day I grew up watching detective shows. I grew up watching crime dramas detecting, analyzing, trying to figure out puzzles and mysteries. I literally grew up doing that, probably from the age of six or seven. I was kind of into it. Maybe seven or eight years old is more accurate, but I was really into that big time. I still watch them, maybe not as hot and heavy as before. My wife may disagree, but she's not here to dispute any of this. But I fancy myself as being observant and paying attention to the details in every area of my life, in every area of my life. But when I realized how many details I've missed in my time of being under the weather and having to kind of sit back and slow down and ponder some stuff, sit in some situations and look at where I am and where, relative to where I want to be or where I think I should be, at this point in my life, the details that I have missed personally are astounding. I can't believe I didn't notice this. I can't believe I didn't notice that. How did that get past me that was sitting there the whole time. I didn't even notice it.

Speaker 1: 9:53

My mom had a saying that she would say back in the day, and I was so tired of her saying it, but it was so accurate and so timely, even in the season that we're in now. She would say she would ask me to go find something for her. She'd tell me where it is. I'll go to where she said and try to find it and won't be able to see it. I'll overlook it. Whether it's in the refrigerator or in a closet, I'll overlook it and she'll come inside there, frustrated of course, and she'll find it. She'll say it's right here. If it had teeth it would have bit you. Or if it was a snake it would have bit you. That's one of her old sayings and she hates snakes. So I don't know where she got that from, but it's so accurate.

Speaker 1: 10:40

There are things right in the elephant in the room. There's so many things in our lives that are right there. They're not hard to see. All you need is an observant eye or unbiased opinion and you can see some of the problems that we walk around never even noticing. But honestly, as much as I love the crime dramas and the detective shows. You know, I still do. I just don't consume so much of them as I used to. It's because we can't be as efficient as a TV detective, which is not totally rooted in reality and never miss a beat, never make any mistakes, always getting it right.

Speaker 1: 11:12

We're flawed and I think that I want to make that a main point of the episode today so you understand that part in case maybe perhaps you never really gave it any thought. We are flawed. It's not designed to be a crutch or an excuse to not function, progress and grow ourselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally, etc. But we are flawed. If we understand that from that vantage point, we recognize that you know we're going to make mistakes. As a default. We're not going to get everything right, especially at the paces that we run in life, the speed that we do things in life. But if we slow down, I wonder what would happen if we slow down.

Speaker 1: 12:01

For somebody who has the kind of mindset that I do, that kind of A-type personality where I come from, slowing down is almost like a death sentence. So when I get sick, when I'm under the weather, it's horrible for me. It's equivalent to a prison sentence for me, because that means that the five, six, eight, 10 things that I do every day. I can't do it anymore. And now I have to wait another day and another day, five days, seven days, maybe even 10 days in if things are really rough. I had to go back 10 days later and try to catch up on all the things that I couldn't accomplish, all that I couldn't function and be effective in because I had to slow down. But, despite how it makes me feel personally, because of my personality and my drive and how I look at things from a standpoint of determination and process and progress and getting things accomplished, slowing down is not a crime. Slowing down is not wicked. It's not evil.

Speaker 1: 13:07

As a matter of fact, use the children of Israel as an example. The example wasn't great, but they went out of Egypt, out of bondage under Pharaoh and the harsh laws and dictates that were very prominent in Egypt at the time, and they left for a journey to a promised land that was supposed to last 11 days. It took them 40 years. Now you could do the math, but 11 days is a lot longer, shorter than 40 years, and what was taking place during that time frame was a weeding out, was a pruning, so what could have been a very quick process probably would have been disastrous for them as a nation had they got to their destination in 11 days with the personnel and with the mindsets and with the wicked mentality that would have went there with them. But slowing down caused them to wean out or, I guess, filter out some of those attitudes, those behaviors, those mindsets that were crippling to any thought of being a strong and powerful and holy nation. So those things had to be weeded out. But it couldn't do it at the pace and the speed that they were doing it at.

Speaker 1: 14:26

I hope this is making an impact for somebody out there. It's definitely impacted me. Right now, even as I'm saying it, maybe you need to slow down. Maybe you're going too fast at what you're trying to accomplish and you don't have the character to hold up. If you got to the place you wanted to be at, do you have the character to hold you? A lot of people want to get this new house, these new cars, want to have this land, want to have this success in business, but their character is suspect. God is so merciful that he gives you what's best for you and not only what you want. Sometimes it's good to slow down. It's hard for me to grasp that at times I was frustrated during my time of being sick just being honest and transparent.

Speaker 1: 15:15

But it's important to own the fact that we're flawed. It's important to own the fact that being flawed should just be a temporary place and not a permanent residence. We can't say you know what I'm flawed, so whatever I do is gravy, I ain't going to try that hard, I ain't going to push forward, but so much because I'm flawed, I'm probably going to mess it up anyway. I know I can't make it perfect. We need to own the fact that that's a temporary place. We can grow, we can be better, we can do better, we can do more, we can accomplish more, we can have more success. We can make more of an impact and have more of an influence, even though we're flawed. Because being flawed is just a temporary home and not a permanent residence. We're not supposed to live there. We're not supposed to stay there and pitch a tent there At flaws. We're not supposed to stay there that long. See it, recognize it and then adjust. Stay there that long, see it, recognize it and then adjust.

Speaker 1: 16:23

I've been recently forced to slow down and pay attention to the details. Have you been able to do that lately? Can you slow down and pay attention to the details without having to be forced to do so? There's people that are doing things that I don't like, but I'm not slowing down so I can look at them and see what they're doing and to respond to what they're doing. I'm not slowing down so I can micromanage the details of life and neglect the weightier matters in life. I'm slowing down so I can eventually pick up pace and get back in rhythm and, in effect, speed up again.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Honestly, just evaluate where you are relative to the big picture. After you remove all of the heavy stuff, something amazing happened. I see if you don't sit and recognize where you are and I'm really in this place. Honestly, it's a work in progress. I want to encourage you if you're here in that same or similar place like I am, just know you're not alone. Somebody out here is doing it with you and you're not by yourself. I'm here to be an encouragement for you, even though I don't understand fully all that's going on.

Speaker 1: 17:40

But I know that, relative to the big picture, I'm not where I want to be, but I'm being forced now, and it's a good thing. I use the word forced, for lack of a better word. It's a good thing, but I'm being forced now to look at all the heavy stuff and remove it out of my life, all the things that have been burdens to me. I'm removing it out of my life. I'm removing being offended or the opportunity to be offended out of my life. I'm removing the need for validation and acceptance out of my life. I'm removing the idea that I don't fit or I don't belong out of my life. I'm removing the pride that says you can do it by yourself, you don't need anybody. I'm removing the self-righteousness out of my life that says if you work on this really hard enough and you do all you can do, it's going to be awesome, it's going to be the best thing it can be.

Speaker 1: 18:39

I'm removing all of the heavy stuff out of my life. The amazing thing that happens when you do that, when you get all the heavy stuff out of your life, then you can run lean. When that happens, then you can soar, you can move fast, you can go to the next level because all the heavy burdens have been removed. That's really all that God wants us to do. That's why he says in 1 Peter 5 and 7, cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you. Hope this is a blessing to you. Hope it helps Reach out. Let me know what you think. Have a great day.