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WE KEEP OUR PEACE AND GET THE MOST DONE WHEN WE GO STEP BY STEP AND ONE DAY AT A TIME

We've all heard the expression and it's true: haste makes waste.

It also makes for high blood pressure (plus multivariate other ills).

Note that the best work you have done -- the most complete projects, the highest-quality efforts -- have been step by step and piecemeal; not when things are tossed together.

Sometimes, a rush job works. Sometimes, it has to be that way. We're out of time! But most often, it wasn't worth the mad dash. Note how a good carpenter functions: with deliberation, efficiently but carefully, taking proper time with each matter until one thing builds upon another and forms the whole of whatever it is he is constructing (or fixing). Wood is measured, marked, cut, filed, sanded carefully, sanded again.

Step by step.

First things first.

It's how God created Creation. Look the seven days in Genesis. God took His "time." Or, if you will, take the view of how slowly but surely and brilliantly and remarkably He evolved all that is living around us over the course of millennia (evolve means to "unfold"; the heresy and absurdity is in believing that life could unfold randomly and without Him). "I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time [appointed] for every matter and purpose and for every work" (Ecclesiastes 3:17).

One thing at a time. Not so fast.

Did you ever stop to contemplate the illnesses attributed to stress?

When you whip through everything, you also often whip past everything. It just isn't as good. And smaller things pile up. When you don't take that extra moment (and it's usually just a moment) to neatly put something back in the closet, or on a shelf, or in a garage, or to dust (right when you notice the dust), it accumulates into clutter that weighs on your mind until it necessitates major cleaning.

Wasted energy.

The same's true with prayer: Taking time to do it right can make the difference between a miracle -- prayer that pierces the clouds -- and a period of aridity, when God doesn't seem to respond.

Take your time; do it in His timing; flow with what feels peaceful around you. A frantic person is a person out of balance. Hypertension can be cured naturally. It takes discipline (which is such a key to so many aspects of happiness).

Joy comes with diligence.

Think things through before charging through. Don't bite off more than you can masticate. If you have a list of matters that need to be done in a day, make sure it's not too many such items. Don't go beyond tranquility. Your list of things to do today should be only as long as is reasonable.

If in thinking about all that you have to do your heart starts throbbing, you are putting too much on your spirit (which then translates physically).

The mind controls the brain and the brain controls bodily functions. Start at the top! Balance the spirit! Sometimes, we're called simply to exist.

On Sundays, rest.

Lent is a perfect time to purge neurotic habits.

Cast such out by name: spirit of anxiety, spirit of disorganization, spirit of sloth, spirit of hurriedness.

With prayer, everything gets done faster and better, without frenzy. A workaholic can damage himself or herself as much as an alcoholic. Easy does it -- although that's different than laziness (which is the other extreme).

Your enemy: any extreme.

When we're in tune with God and doing what He planned for us to do, we can seek the higher realms; we can even ask for a "Divine shift." He can instantly take us to the next level. He can place people in our paths who can open doors we cannot. New good things come as if pouring from a cornucopia! He will exert that effort. He will not do that, however -- taking us to a higher level, taking our work to a higher level, taking our lives to a new place -- unless we have a balanced pace.

Stop yourself from rushing through life -- it's too fleeting as it is. Don't race across tightropes. Each day has evil sufficient unto itself (Matthew 6:34). Focus on what's immediately necessary. Pray. Plan. Measure. Work at what is at hand. Hope.

God, Who even watches every bird (Matthew 10:27), will take care of the rest.