Melbourne is playing host to its second “A taste of slow” conference next month. This conference is all about moving away from fast food and returning to traditional foods, food production and preparation methods, as well as searching for healthy alternatives, sustainable practices and generally getting back to basics.
The revival of “slow food” was first championed by Carlos Petrini in 1986 in a direct response to the opening of a McDonald’s on the Spanish Steps in Rome. This led to people from 15 countries meeting in Paris in 1989 with the aim of taking the “slow food” movement to the world.
“We are enslaved by speed and have succumbed to the same insidious virus: Fast Life,” their manifesto read. “May suitable doses of . . . slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.”
It’s probably a healthier and more satisfying way to eat, but it’s not just in food where life’s fast these days.
We don’t really get that much time to relax any more—although I have the feeling that people have probably been saying that for centuries, referring to times in the past where their ancestors only had to worry about herding goats up and down hills while singing duets with bluebirds (nostalgia’s odd like that).
Generally we’re spending less time with our families and more time with our jobs. And it’s not just work we have to concentrate on. We’re bombarded by stuff all the time as well.
Conservative estimates suggest that we come into contact with more than 800 advertisements each day—that includes everything from TV to radio to newspapers and billboards. Most of the ads tell us we need to be someone different or at least have whatever celebrity X is currently flogging (which will involve working more time to make more money, of course).
We have to have broadband internet because dial-up is too slow. A few minutes are too long to wait for something—we need it now. We can’t get away from mobile phones either, although maybe it’s more like we don’t want to. They’re almost like a child—except children don’t fit in your pocket—demand our constant attention and we are too “soft-hearted” to leave them alone for a moment.
There are emails to respond to, calls to make, people to see and work to be done every day it seems.
So where in all of this is there time to be still and know God (see Psalm 46:10)? Of course we have the Sabbath, which was “made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (see Mark 2:27, NIV), but are we having a “fast food” Sabbath instead of taking time to savour it, spending time with God and others in communion?
Rush to church, hope the sermon doesn’t go for too long, rush back home, make some lunch and then wait around for the end of the day so that you can get back to doing those emails, phone calls and our other work and play—if we even take that much of a break.
The Sabbath is meant to be a joy, not a burden. But sometimes it can feel the other way around with the pressure we’re often under through the rest of the week. Even the Israelites had problems enjoying their day of rest. In a vision God gave to Amos—recorded in Amos 8:5—the Israelites were asking when the Sabbath will be over so they can get back to their businesses. Nehemiah 13 looks at the reforms made as Jerusalem was rebuilt. Nehemiah sees people working on the Sabbath so rules that the gates of the city be closed on Sabbath to make sure that the people had a “slow Sabbath.”
The Sabbath is our one day in the week that’s been set aside, not by us just to have a day to put our feet up, but by God. He knows how much we need to take some time out each week—after all, He rested after the six days of creation. This was His first time to spend with us, too, where Adam, Eve and God could talk and get to know each other.
We need slow Sabbaths away from the everyday busyness to come back to spending time with God and others—it gives us the ability to get over our spiritual indigestion and remember to taste and see that God—and the life He gives—really is good.