With all the busyness and all the distractions around us, how can we be still? How can we learn to just take time out and sit still? It is not easy to do, is it? We are pulled in hundred different directions. It seems like everybody wants something from us. Spouses, children, elderly parents, pets, friends, the boss, and not to mention time spent on the smart phone. Answering calls, texting, emailing and of course watching the latest news, which can be very stressful on its own. So what are we to do? In the early seventies, when I was still in college, they were talking about new inventions and how we were going to have so much free time. Really? Where is the free time? The more gadgets we have, the more time we seem to waste. Before we had "beepers" (some young people may not know what that is), cell phones, computers and voicemail, it was nice. We would leave the office for lunch and come back to a bunch of messages we had to return. When we got all the above mentioned "gadgets" we were on call all the time. People started taking their laptops on their vacation. We all want to check our emails and texts, so we don't "miss" anything. It seems like with all the progress we have made, we have also lost the little freedoms we had.We lost the free time we had. I just saw a short video on the "future" groceries stores...WOW...there is a robot like cart that follows you around and does all the work for you and it adds up everything so you don't need to go to a cashier or a self checkout register. Crazy. We have less time today, than we ever had, and unfortunately, we have more noise..Every place you go there is music, some is good, but some gives you a headache. There is music even in the bathrooms. In the restaurants, the markets, the dressing rooms. No peace and quiet.
I read this little story not too long ago, where a group of workers were cutting ice out of a frozen lake and storing it in an icehouse, when one of the workers realized he had lost his watch in the windowless building. They all searched for it in vain.
After they had given up, a young boy who had seen them exit, went into the building. Soon, he came out with the watch. They couldn't believe it. They asked him how he was able to find it? The young man said, I sat down and kept quiet, and soon I could hear it ticking!
No wonder we cannot hear God, or hear the watch ticking. Constant turmoil is all around us. Today we downloaded an App, because the product we were buying had a coupon we could use from the App. You would think it would be simple..oh NO. We had to create an account, which we did, then we had to come up with user ID and passcode, which we did. But at the end we couldn't get the coupon. There was something the App did not like. We wasted time, got frustrated and we said, forget it, paid the full price and left the store. The Bible often talks about being still and also not to fret. Not easy to do in today's world!
Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God..Maybe if we stop rushing around and spend some quiet time with Him and the Scriptures, we may hear his gentle voice. Instead of looking at our smart phones every two seconds, maybe we can sit down and read a good book.
Psalm 37: 7 suggests to "be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him". Again, hard to do, when you see the injustices around us and the people who get away with doing bad things. How can we be calm and quiet? Well, I don't know. All we can do is try. We must ask ourselves. What will help us stay silent and listen? How can we be still before God each day? If we asked ourselves these questions, perhaps we can start hearing His wisdom speaking to us, quiet and steady as a ticking watch.
Have a Great Day
