Between 1968 and 1988, the average American added 168 hours of work to his or her annual work load — working about a month more per year! We work too much. Darryl Tippens, in chp 6 of Pilgrim Heart, adds a few more beatitudes on “resting.” How can we slow down? I suggest reading this chp slowly. It’s a good one. Nothing new; just true. Wise.
Maybe I should ask if you are doing anything to manage your schedule so it is not overpacked? Anything consciously to slow down? How have you learned this lesson? Do we live in such a way that we are so full of comparing ourselves that we are no longer simply contented with being who we are?

Here are some new beatitudes:
#4: Happy are the imperfectionists, for they will achieve much.
Sometimes, Tippens says, excellence is not about high standard but about neurosis. Not every task demands perfection. Do we know the difference?
#5: Happy are those who drive in the slow lane, for they will arrive in peaces (or in one piece).
Tippens says he sometimes drives in the slow lane and stays there; sometimes he blesses everyone in the line ahead of him. He avoids drive-through windows and fast-food restaurants.
#6: Blessed are those who build walls for they will be fully connected.
Have we knocked down the Sabbath wall or the sacred wall so that everything is work and work bleeds into everything?
#7: Happy are those who say ‘no,’ for they will be affirmed.
Can you say ‘no’? He quotes Thomas Kelley’s famous A Testament of Devotion and tells the story of how Richard Foster learned to say no. He’s got a nice list on pp. 80-81 of when to say no.
#8: Blessed are those who know the tie that binds, for they will know the freedom of belonging.
We need one another — when we get our kickstart in life and when we are in the amber years — but also very much in the in-between years.