We are so busy being busy. We work, either from home or drive to a job. We have kids to get ready for school or daycare. We volunteer for community organizations that make our little corner of the world a better place. We go to our kids and grandkids events. There is cleaning, organizing exercising and meals that must be done daily. We go to church and give our time where we feel we can better God’s kingdom. We socialize, renovate and more, filling up our time with important things.
Idle hands are the devil’s workshop. I have heard that saying off and on throughout my life. If I am busy making the world or my home or my job a better place than that’s for God, so it’s all good. Too often I spend the obligatory 30 minutes with God in the morning; no less, no more. Reading a few passages in the bible and then a devotion. I get out my prayer notebook and pick the urgent needs. And then it’s time to do all that good work.
“He says, “Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalms 46:10
Hmm, too often there is nothing in my day that leaves time for being still. And if I do actually have some still time, I find myself on the couch in front of the tv or on social media accomplishing nothing of value.
When I look at the ultimate example, Jesus, I can find a healthy dose of how I should live. He spent quality time with God, made it a priority. His prayer life was a great example to his disciples, in fact one even asked Jesus to teach them to pray. (Luke 11:1)
Jesus took time to socialize. He went to weddings, had dinners at people’s homes and spent an evening - one of the last of his ministry - enjoying supper with his friends and disciples. He worked hard, traveling to reach as many people as He could with his ministry. He also rested when He needed it.
How do I find time in today’s world to live like Jesus? I could use the excuse that it’s different today, new technology, a more complicated world and so much chaos. But really, were the needs any different than the ones Jesus saw? Hunger, poverty, sickness, lost souls?
There was a week in July a couple of years ago that I was at the church every single night of the week and Saturday morning for committee meetings. I can tell you at the end of that week I was tired, frustrated and feeling like I had done nothing to forward God’s kingdom. Committee meetings are important and need to happen, but should one person go to that many meetings in a week? Even the pastor wasn’t at all of those meetings.
I got caught up in the idea that the more hustle and bustle I was doing for God, the closer I would be to Him. That I would hear Him more clearly. Of course, it didn’t work that way. I told my pastor I had never spent so much time in church and felt so far away from God.
Maybe if I start with being still, I will know where He wants me to go. If I just listen, will I hear His voice in the stillness of the morning, guiding me to exactly where He needs me to be, doing exactly what He needs done? Then, I am no longer a hamster spinning my wheels all day and producing so very little of what this world needs, of what God wants from me.
My goal - Be still, listen, go out, do Gods work. Repeat.
