Our
world today is one of speed. Everyone wants things dome yesterday and having to
wait becomes nerve racking. Waiting and taking things slowly has become a lost
virtue. Sometimes we need to slow down and take the long way around the world
as the recording artist Ronnie Milsap sings:
In
the daily rush of things
If we stop to think it seems
We never have time alone
Doin' things we have to do
Not much time for me and you
Before we know it, it will all be gone
Let's
take the long way around the world
Sharing each other as we go
Let's take the long way around the world
And let's take it real slow
Lisa
and I were returning home to Alabama from Texas when the Interstate traffic
slowed from eighty plus miles per hour to a crawl due to an accident. The exits
were few and far between. Traveling in our Honda Civic we rolled the windows
down and opened the moon roof. We were not in a hurry and were enjoying the
open air. Suddenly a yellow butterfly passed us.
As
Lisa drove, I laughed saying, “We’re so slow on the Interstate that a butterfly
just passed us.” It wasn’t too long until a truck carrying a car passed us in
the emergency lane. Traveling about a mile we passed the truck which was stopped
by a state trooper and made to wait and receive a ticket.
It
is not unusual in Alabama for highway lanes to close down to one lane. A sign
precedes the closing stating the lane closes, must turn right. Some of these
roads will have a sight stating, “merge left.” It never ceases to amaze me how local
people will leave a stop light and try to outrun the car to the left knowing
the lane is running out.
If
the vehicle is out of state most folks will be considerate and allow the perpetrator
to merge left. If the person is local, those on the left will not allow the
violator to merge left and the “drag race” ensues.
Things
are slow for a reason. One time a friend of mine was running late for work.
There had been storms the night before. My friend, frustrated by a slow pickup
raced around the pickup. She realized that the pickup was slowing to a stop
because a large tree had blown across the road. My friend ended up sideways beside
the tree!
Rule
of thumb is if you are late it is mathematically impossible to catch most of
the time. Just accept that you are late.
Living
in the rural Alabama the roads are farm-to-market with a speed limit of forty
miles per hour. There is a young man that passes our house on a “cotch rocket,”
a racing motorcycle, well over forty miles per hour. Everyone on our road fears
that one day he is not going to make it.
This
past week Lisa cooked a beef roast in a cast iron pot. She cooked it slowly all
day. I will tell you that “she knocked it out of the park.” It was the best one
she has ever cooked. It was delicious and the slow cooked meat was tender, the
potatoes, carrots, and onions were perfect. You cannot get that in a microwave.
My
old black friend Elijah J. Smith cooked the best pork ribs. His secret was he
would visit three to five supermarkets to select two to three slabs of ribs. He
would marinate them all night in his secret recipe and cook them over a bed of
coal for six hours. He told me, “No flame.”
Smitty
would bring them to work and we would slowly warm them beneath the cement kilns
for supper. They were so delicious. One night Jim Tucker, another co-worker,
was gnawing on a rib bone like a dog. Smitty said, “Tucker, you can have
another one.” We all laughed. Yes, I gnawed the bone as did all of us. They
were and are the best slow cooked ribs that I have ever eaten.
Lisa
and I love to dance slowly in the privacy of our living room. It is a time to
spend a few moments enjoying songs and each other.
Johnny
Rivers has a wonderful song, Slow Dancin (’Swayin’ to the Music):
It's
late at night and we're all alone,
just the music on the radio.
No one's comin', no one's gonna telephone.
Just me and you and the lights down low.
[Chorus:]
We're slow dancin', swayin' to the music.
slow dancin', just me and my girl.
Slow dancin', swayin' to the music.
no one else in the whole wide world
The song is a great testimony of spending time together.
In our fast world it is good to slow down at times. The Bible reminds us that slow is a good attribute, a Godly one. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. James 1:19 KJV
But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth Psalm 86:15
The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Nahum 1:3
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. Joel 2:13
Spend
time with God and meditate slowly on His Word. Take time to take the long way
home and slowly dance with your spouse.
