It is amazing how much I can hear when I am still enough to really listen.
I went camping this summer.
Just God and I.
I woke up in the morning and yes, afternoon to the sounds of nature. The mocking birds fighting outside the tent. Owls hooting in the distance. Squirrells running and leaping from limb to limb. Fish splashing at the surface of the lake. I thought about what if we took a time out to listen to the activites around us in our daily life. I have tried to take a intermission from life since that trip to listen. Once you take out the white noise you can hear the kids playing in the neighborhood, the birds flying from my roof to the front yard in a playfull mood, occasionally you can hear a vehicle drive down the road. Then the expected happens. The white noise of radio, media, honking, people yelling at each other in the traffic. Our schedule becomes chaos. Everytime I look around the bend there is more traffic coming my way. And it seems neverending!
What if I stopped in the traffic? What if parked in the middle of the chaos?
I walk towards the grass and take a time out from life?
Besides the obvious of getting cussed out, possibly get into an accident and questionable gestures thrown my direction that says your #1.
Would it be okay for me to take a time out? Sometimes I feel like the schedule is made to add to the insanity of life instead of to the progress of the function. Is it okay to take a time out? What if we took that time out to listen to what God has to say? We might be amazed with the communication if we would shut up, sit down and just listen!
Recently, I have been having trouble with stress and blood pressure causing the doc to have me take medication, relax and exercise/diet until further instructions. Then one night I recieved a call from Jade, a former student of mine when I was a youth pastor and good friend. He explained that he was forced to make that stop in the middle of traffic. He had went through surgery for brain cancer and will be monitored for the next three years if the cancer will relapse. But instead of getting out of the vehicle, yelling, screaming and kicking the tire in mid traffic. He chose to embrace this time out from the world and communicate with distant friends and family. Make an attempt to build bridges to broken relationships. WOW, The crap I was going through was nothing after recieving this call.....it was truely a blessing. It reminded me of the quiet time I relished with God while camping this summer. I need more quiet times. I too need to use this time to communicate with distant friends and rebuild bridges to broken relationships.
Summer is almost over and my morning ritual of listening has already begun to fade as the sun shows herself later and later each day. Eventually, it will be lost all together, and I have to set my alarm. As summer ends and the demands of a schedule, work and family increase, I can too feel the world is pulling at me again. Pulling me away from the quiet gift of morning. That scares me because I know that in the past that sometimes I’ve been pulled under by the tide. I don’t know if you have ever felt that way, pulled under by the tide of life, but I have—in relationships with friends and family, at work, at church, heck even just getting out of bed in the morning can be difficult. Its like, at times, God has closed his eyes to me, and I wonder, "Where is he? Why does God let this !@#$ happen to me? Then I am reminded that I am at fault for the chaos. I allow the tide to take me down!
I hope this blog can assist you on the journey of hard questions:
What hurts?
What relationships do you struggle with?
What resentments do you carry?
What fears do you face?
Is the tide taking you down?
Are you overwhelmed by the 20 lane traffic of life?
Feel free to slam on the brakes during your traffic jam! Get out and relish God's grace. I am convinced it is not possible to have a relationship without having a quiet time.
Deuteronomy 30:19
I have set before you life and death...Now choose life.
I know there is an obvious meaning behind this verse but I can see another as the continued relationship is LIFE and Death or Darkness is in the lack of relationship.
John 5:40
Come to me to have Life!
Recently, I have allowed the traffic to disrupt my life. I have not been taking advantage of the opportunities I have been given to just listen. I will be camping again very soon and this time it will be with friends. I pray they feel God's peace from this getaway. I pray they will go through a personal revival. I pray that they learn to listen just as I have learned recently.
I know that I can't wait to listen!
