Hi, my name is Pete Gazzaro.

I want to welcome you today to the emotionally healthy leader podcast.

Great to be with you.

Our title today is slowing down to catch up with God,

How to Escape the Ministry Hamster Wheel.

Now listen, we live in a world, as you well know, that never stops. And the world's shaped by all kinds of anxiety and overload and lots of distraction.

What's happened is the church, we've conformed to the world. And we're much like that.

We're not that different. And we're much like spinning on a

hamster wheel uh just like everybody else and so uh you know there's a great book written called a

dopamine revolution and dopamine nation uh by anna lemke and she talks about how the fastest growing

sector of the culture economy is distraction and scrolling, swiping,

you know, just wasting time.

And the key is to get people going on scrolling, whether it's Instagram or Facebook or TikTok.

And it may last only a few minutes, but it's keeping people in there by the algorithms.

And the brain rewards

these short bursts of distraction. And so dopamine, as neurotransmitters released in our brain,

we feel good so we repeat it again and again, and we end up becoming addicted. In fact,

addiction is the goal in billions and billions of dollars are spent by all the major corporations in that space to keep us scrolling and distracted.

It's a huge business.

So we often mistakenly think that, okay, slowing down is about my personal care and life.

But actually, it's about much more than that.

It's about the mission of Jesus in the world and his invitation to us.

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