From the moment my son left his mother's womb and came into this world he became a perpetual motion machine. As an infant, it was always a battle to get him to go to sleep because somehow he knew he would miss out on all the fun. He also absolutely refused to be held facing you because he couldn't see what was happening. He had to be held facing out. This is no exaggeration when I tell you that when he learned to walk, he was in high gear until he laid his head down and fell asleep. Now, as a teenager, he sleeps every chance he gets and grimaces at the mere thought of doing any sort of manual labor. I guess he is making up for all those years of high energy living.
I have to work at relaxing. My mind is always at work, thinking about the next project ahead of me and the appointments and deadlines that wait for me the next day. I am one of those people that watch TV while reading the paper or surfing the internet. I am a multi-tasker. This type of personality has many positive qualities. It also has some inherent pitfalls.
In Psalm 46:10 David tells us, "Be still and know that I am God." In the fast-paced, instant society we live in, it is no easy task sometimes to just be still. The Hebrew meaning for "be still" is to let drop, abandon, relax, refrain, forsake; to let go; to withdraw. As we juggle schedules and deadlines, race here and there to get the kids to soccer practice and then piano lessons, make dinner and clean up, answer emails and return calls, spend quality time with the family, God gets overshadowed and we get overwhelmed. These necessary and important things have a way of looming large and blocking our view of God as we race through our day. It is vital that we learn to be still or withdraw from all the stuff so that we can once again see him and know who he is. In doing this, we allow his greatness to overshadow everything else. This takes practice and discipline so that it becomes a habit.
What do you need to withdraw from today? I would liket to invite you to take up a 7-day challenge to withdraw. For seven days commit to take five minutes every day and turn off our phone and computer, turn off the TV, turn off the worship music, and even put your bible away for those five minutes. Do nothing but sit in silence with absolutely no distractions so that you can be still and just listen. As you do this, keep a daily journal of what you heard during those quiet moments. I challenge you to try it. It's easier said than done. We get so accustomed to all the background noise that when we turn it off we get nervous. As a worship leader I am absolutely amazed at how difficult it is to get a congregation to just spend 30 seconds in silence to allow God to speak to us. People fidget and loor around to see why no one is doing anything. We have become so addicted to noise that we even fill our Sunday morning services with 2 hours of non-stop singing and talking and we never let God get a word in.
I have this sneaky suspicion that the majority of our stress is not due to all the stuff we have to do, but because we just won't sit still long enough to let God speak his words of peace and reassurance to us. It is in the still, quiet moments that we find him, not in the thunder. It's the quiet whisper that we need to look for. We need to withdraw from the noise, climb up onto his lap and listen to him whisper his words of truth and reassurance into our ear. That is what brings peace, hope and life in the middle of chaos, stress and anxiety. Isaiah 40:31 says, "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength..." That word wait literally means to linger in his presence. Our strength is renewed in the spiritual descipline of withdrawing and lingering. As you practice disconnecting, you will find a renewed and deepened connection with God.