Here is what happens when I decide to move fast and break things.

The first thing to break is me.

In the early days of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg said “move fast and break things”. When I move fast and break things, the first thing to break is me. But prudence is the way of Jesus – not hurry.

I know this and yet, I keep choosing to move FASTER. The question is why?

I see the results and feel its effects. My days are marked by stress, pressure and a frenetic pace to keep up with some interpretation of how I’ve been convinced life should be. At night it’s hard to wind down because my mind is swirling.

I wake up the next day after hours of white noise, open my laptop, and do it all again. Yesterday, I talked with a woman who lost $1000 on crypto and saw a kid hit his forehead on the corner of a table running to get ice cream. They were moving too fast too and breaking themselves. I saw myself in them.

I think that Zuckerberg, the woman I talked to yesterday who is out $1000 on crypto, and the kid who bumped his head are moving quickly because they’re afraid of missing out. Zuckerberg is afraid of missing out on more money and control as greed, profits and self-importance dominate his landscape. The woman I spoke with feels perpetually late and insignificant so didn’t want to miss her chance at the next thing going to the moon. And that little boy thought, “I’m not going to get any” so he pushed his way past smaller kids right into the corner of a table.

And it’s all of those things that keep me from slowing down. I move fast because I feel powerless, out of control, and insignificant in a world that still kills unarmed Black people, snatches up scholars, moms and meatpackers and puts them in cages, and takes healthcare and food assistance away from the disabled, women, and children. The story I tell myself is “I won’t get any” because me and mine is all that I can see when my feelings become my reality. Lord have mercy.

There are three reasons why I’m afraid to slow down and two results of choosing to live out of that fear.

I don’t slow down because I’m afraid I won’t get what I want, that I will lose control, and be insignificant. I am afraid because I believe the lie that there’s just not enough for me.

And when I live that way, I diminish and dismiss the needs of my neighbors and become someone who is unable to contribute to or receive from my community in any meaningful way. I opt into hierarchy when God made me to part of a beloved, communal ecosystem. Lord, have mercy.

Jesus called me to love God and to love my neighbor as myself. So when I slow down, I am choosing to love myself. And when I rest, I am able to reflect on His perfect, unfailing love which drives out all fear – including my fears of powerlessness, insignificance and lack of control.

It is out of this place of perfect, eternal affection that I am able to love my neighbor and give love and praise back to God. In Jesus’ economy, there is always enough for me, I don’t have to fight for my seat at His table. Since I have no need, I have no greed.

Slowing down to rest, reflect, learn and grow is what makes the soil of personal and collective transformation rich and nutrient dense. I hope that you are able to slow down today, reflect on something beautiful and then reflect that love and beauty back into the world as an act of resistance to the culture of fear and domination that seeks to mark our days with hierarchy and competition. Jesus, may it be so.

Let me know what you think! I look forward to the conversation and comments because our screens make us into lonely consumers but God made us to be a vibrant community.

In Christ and for His Glory,

jonathan

PS. Pre-order your copy of “Beauty and Resistance: Spiritual Rhythms for Formation and Repair” to be released on November 11, 2025.