To Hell With Hustle
By: John Thomas
Tags: Books, Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Culture

Jefferson Bethke’s new book puts a proper emphasis on the importance of Sabbath.

Photo by Angelina Kichukova on Unsplash

In his new book To Hell With Hustle, YouTube sensation and writer Jefferson Bethke, identifies an “ethos of hustle injected into us all at birth” and the noise, fame, work, and tribalism that have overtaken the lives of many, as the main problems facing our culture today. As a remedy, Bethke identifies each problem’s opposite: for noise, silence; for fame, obscurity; for work, rest; and for tribalism, empathy.

The book explores each of these antidotes as Bethke takes readers around the country to New Mallery Abbey in Iowa — dubbed the quietest place in the world — and back in time to Swidnik, Poland on February, 5th 1982, a day when the city’s residents were carrying around their TV’s in protest against the Soviet occupied propaganda they were routinely subject to — a picture of the countercultural and defiant nature Sabbath rest looks like today.

Indeed, it is Bethke’s own commitment to practicing Sabbath — one 24-hour period of rest every week — that is the most refreshing aspect of his book. While he doesn’t command or prescribe, Bethke invites readers into the rhythms and rituals of his family life, how they have made “no” their default answer, and prioritized formation over achieving goals. Writes Bethke,

“A couple of the small changes Alyssa [his wife] and I have pursued are honoring a family Sabbath, never allowing phones in the bedrooms, and turning off our phones once a week for a twenty-four hour period.”

Bethke claims that these changes have “yielded massive results.” In our 24/7 hustle culture Sabbath has never been more necessary — nor more abused. It is encouraging to see a writer like Bethke give such importance to something so vital to our health, both physical and spiritual.

Of course our hustle culture wasn’t developed yesterday. Its been around for over a century now and Bethke traces its roots to the dawn of the industrial revolution. Henry Ford, the implementation of the assembly line, and the advent of the car all have a place in this tale and have each contributed in some measure to the hurry that does real violence to our souls.

Bethke even examines how the industrial revolution has infiltrated the church and created a type of “assembly-line Christianity.” At the expense of relationships, a pre-planned and programmed schedule is followed every Sunday in churches across the country and world. Worship, stand up, sit down, pray, sermon, repeat. Of course Bethke has a remedy for industrialized religion as well — the adoption of agrarian principles that give proper weight to the rhythms, rituals, and seasons that keep us balanced.

While all of this is good and true it seems at times as though Bethke is the one who needs this message the most. As if he is writing to himself and letting us read it. To be sure hustle culture is real and a threat, but most Christians probably aren’t in as deep as Bethke himself. It was a YouTube video that launched his career and he and his wife have taken to social media as their full time work. In some cases it leaves the reader wondering who Bethke is to preach to us on such matters.

But the aforementioned discipline and intentionality Bethke has adopted largely restores his credibility and gives the book a flavor more akin to a warning from someone who has been there. In that way we can learn much from Bethke who has tried always-on-the-go lifestyle and has declared, “to hell with hustle.”

John Thomas is a freelance writer. His writing has appeared at Desiring God, Christ and Pop Culture, and Christianity Today. He writes regularly at Soli Deo Gloria.