Remember the title a few weeks ago for a post “Start Hard?” Now it’s “Go Slow.” This apparent contradiction doesn’t necessarily express early onset dementia, but reflects the complexity and paradoxes of life. In setting up the coffee pot for the next AM, I fill the pot and pour it into the reservoir. I’ve learned to start the flow slowly, but once established, I can gush it in, like the pic. Without spilling. But starting fast would splash water all over the counter.
I wish my grandmother Allie, my dad’s mom, had learned that lesson earlier. It would have saved her a boatload of grief. While teaching school in Ogden, she met a charming traveling musician. Here’s how the Salt Lake City Deseret News described it, “The couple met for the first time on Monday last, and the second meeting on Saturday culminated in the marriage. The parents are much grieved at the occurrence.” The parents’ grief expanded two months later, when Allie discovered her pregnancy, at which time Percy Bunyan Rice got out of Dodge. Well, Ogden.
Very quickly he pulled a similar trick in Clay Center KS, marrying a local girl seven months later, just two days before my dad was born, with no divorce. Oh yeah, he was also AWOL from the Army, was arrested on the first day of his honeymoon and imprisoned. Maybe, if Allie hadn’t gotten swept up in the emotional rush, she could have gotten to know his character.
Yes, sometimes we must make fast decisions. Sometimes we need to start strong. Yet for others, we benefit by taking more time. To analyze why we feel rushed—genuine need or impulse and impatience? Even on the Iron Butt ride from “Start Strong,” before I fired up the bike I took a lot of time to figure out how many hours I could safely ride, the speed limits, where to stop for gas and meals, where to spend the first night.
Moses gave us similar advice, “If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!” (Deuteronomy 32:29). A wise person looks ahead, at the details required. At the costs. At possible complications and how to prepare for them. At why we want to do this. At its importance.
We go slow in the early stages. We evaluate and plan. And, like on the Iron Butt ride, we adjust. That’s biblical too, “The human mind plans the way, but the LORD directs the steps” (Proverbs 16:9 NRSV). He’s God. We’re not. And that’s good.
Kick Starting the Application
Think of some impulsive choices that bit you in the butt. What drove the impulsiveness? How could you have avoided it? What role did God play in the decisions? How might going slow have improved the result?