The distractions of the day have our emotional and spiritual health in such disarray, we collapse beneath it. It has us turning on all the sounds we can imagine, to drown out the noise we hear in our head and hearts. We are left feeling lonely, depressed, sad, feeling trapped, dreaming of a better life, and frustrated with the life we live. Even defeated.
Among other things, the writer tells us we must find silence and solitude to be able to find ourselves and allow us to come back to the present. Reducing our speed of life, we can feel again, breathe, and better walk like Jesus walked.
Many of us are all about background noise. Either the radio or CD player is on, but more likely the TV. I know several folks who feel like they can’t survive without some kind of noise in the background. It’s makes a body wonder what they hear in their heads when there is silence. Being afraid to listen to your own thoughts, (in my humble opinion) is a little scary.
Even the very idea of boredom, in our day of technology is nearly non-existent! Think of it. When you are waiting at the doctor’s office what do you do? If you get stuck in traffic for more than 3o seconds what do you reach for? When out on a run or doing other exercise or even work, what are you wearing? The answer for many of us is some kind of device; an iPhone a listening device in our ears, or for some even a lap top computer. The idea being, we find some kind of distraction. The last thing we want is to ‘be there' with nothing to do—or listen to! What are we afraid of?
An antidote for this loss of ourselves, is solitude; alone time-with the Father. Jesus was all about finding a ‘solitary place’. And, it seemed the busier he got, the more time he took to recharge with God. There’s one story about where Jesus had preached all day, and still took time in a solitary (private) place to connect with the Father! Do we do that? Again, when we get busy do we reach for time with God, or do we put him up on the shelf and say, “I’ll get back to my Bible and prayer” later”? I’m guilty of putting it off!
Jesus is described as even getting up early to steal away to have private time with God before his day started. Are we willing to sacrifice sleep to commune with the source of our strength and faith? For continued relationship, we need to create a space for our attention and connection God.
God has exceedingly abundant grace for each of us. He’s provided the means for us to get through this chaotic world, if we’d but recognize it. When we stop long enough to plug in, —and regularly— to our source of strength, God’s grace will restore us. When we slow down and allow his mercy to come down and fill us with his joy and peace as we sit in His presence, we will be filled with gratitude and celebration. As we pause, our souls are filled to overflowing with the settling of our spirit.
It is in this place we can be renewed, creating a wall of protection from the devil’s ongoing showers of defeatism, cruelty, and ‘blowing up’ of our lives.
Are you ready to find the peace that can only come from the Spirit? Take— insist— upon time— for silence and solitude and plug in to the Greatest Energizer who ever lived: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/hurry
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