If you had a “Top Fuel Dragster” (one of those really long drag racing cars with the big wing on the back), you could get through our town in a heartbeat. Top fuel dragsters can reach speeds of 333 mph (536 km/h) and finish quarter mile runs in less than 4.5 seconds. Their acceleration is so amazing that they can go from a standstill to 100 mph (160 km/h) in as little as 0.7 seconds. They are absolutely bizarre to watch.
As fast as they are, though, you could not drive one to Vancouver. In fact, if you lined one up on 4th street it would not make it to the weigh scales before blowing itself up. An article in “Popular Mechanics”, talking about the forces that these engines withstand, stated that by the time a Top Fuel dragster gets to the end of the quarter mile run, the valves in the engine are literally melting from the heat (if you ever go to a big drag racing event you will see the crews rebuilding the engines after every run). Those engines are designed to run as hard as possible for about 5 seconds and then they are done. They can go faster than any other car on the planet, but they tear themselves apart to do it.
The point: You can either go super-fast for a short period of time, or you can go a long distance over a long period of time (like your passenger car does), but you cannot do both.
The same is true of humans. Way back in the Bible, Moses learned this lesson. As the leader of God’s people, he was trying to do everything. He was even spending entire days listening to all the problems that the people were having with one another. When his father-in-law, Jethro, saw this he said, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:17-18). Moses listened and appointed other leaders to help him.
In a world that is likely demanding that you “do more”, “be more” and “take more responsibility”, it is up to you to set some boundaries. You need to make sure that you are spending your time on the things that really matter to you and not just the “urgent” things. Time spent in rest and reflection is not wasted.
The fact is that you can run hard for a while, but not for long.
As fast as they are, though, you could not drive one to Vancouver. In fact, if you lined one up on 4th street it would not make it to the weigh scales before blowing itself up. An article in “Popular Mechanics”, talking about the forces that these engines withstand, stated that by the time a Top Fuel dragster gets to the end of the quarter mile run, the valves in the engine are literally melting from the heat (if you ever go to a big drag racing event you will see the crews rebuilding the engines after every run). Those engines are designed to run as hard as possible for about 5 seconds and then they are done. They can go faster than any other car on the planet, but they tear themselves apart to do it.
The point: You can either go super-fast for a short period of time, or you can go a long distance over a long period of time (like your passenger car does), but you cannot do both.
The same is true of humans. Way back in the Bible, Moses learned this lesson. As the leader of God’s people, he was trying to do everything. He was even spending entire days listening to all the problems that the people were having with one another. When his father-in-law, Jethro, saw this he said, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone” (Exodus 18:17-18). Moses listened and appointed other leaders to help him.
In a world that is likely demanding that you “do more”, “be more” and “take more responsibility”, it is up to you to set some boundaries. You need to make sure that you are spending your time on the things that really matter to you and not just the “urgent” things. Time spent in rest and reflection is not wasted.
The fact is that you can run hard for a while, but not for long.
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