What a shame to have been a Jew keeping the law rigorously and waiting for the Messiah, only to miss him when he came. Yet without good heart maintenance, I can understand the same thing happening over and over again to me. I wonder how many times God actively moved in my life recently and I never recognized him. How often did he intervene in the events of my life, but I was too dull to pick up on it? Did he come and go unseen and unappreciated in my life?
For me, its when life gets too busy that I think I fail to have spiritual vision. God moves and works but I don't see him amid all the activity; and it doesn't really matter if its good activity or otherwise. Simply too much activity makes it hard to have spiritual insight. Last night our house church started at 5:30 but even though we finished our more formal conversation at 7:30, people didn't leave till 9:00. In the quiet of the living room and seated at the table in conversation, I saw God at work. I watched as barriers to help came down, as advise was shared and as fears melted. Without the quiet of our home, I would have never witnessed those moments.
When I was a kid, my dad taught me to hunt deer. I would sit for hours in total stillness on a stand in order to let nature unfold and a deer come close. Honestly I never shot any of the deer but remained spellbound listening to the sounds of the world waking up, i.e., the drip of dew from a leaf, the flight of small birds, the work of a squirrel. Sights and sounds that I never knew existed till those moments of silence. It seems to me that the spiritual hunt for God requires the same thing, i.e., the effort to be still and stay alert.
Showing posts with label still. Show all posts
Showing posts with label still. Show all posts
Monday, May 16, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Acts 1:12-26; Wait
Acts 1:3 says that Jesus appeared to the apostles over a period of forty days. Chapter 2 starts with the day of Pentecost. That leaves a gap of ten days in which 1:12-26 occurs. Ten days of prayer and discernment. Ten days of waiting -- just like Jesus told them to do in verse 4 ("wait for the gift").
We love life when things are happening; we hate waiting. As North Americans we are particulary bad about it. In this society, to wait is to lose time and opportunity. To wait is to be unproductive. Yet, if truth be told, perhaps the real reason that waiting is so hard is that to wait means to listen to my own thoughts. It is to hear what is really inside. In the busy times, there is no opportunity for reflection and change. We simply react with little thinking. In waiting there is no external activity, no crowds, no accolades; there is only the silent company of memories.
Before launching his church, Jesus had the apostles wait. He did not speak to them for ten days. They waited. Sat. Contemplated. Lingered. Questioned. Remembered. Surely their understanding of Jesus was crystalized in those quiet moments. Surely their understanding of who he was, who they were and what they were to do became starkly clear. Only after this would God use them.
Today we want to skip the waiting and the quiet. We believe that we are lazy people if we sit, contemplate and linger. Perhaps that is why our busyness never leads to the productivity we truly crave. Perhaps God is still hoping to launch some of his greatest works on earth but he needs his people to wait first. After all, a night alone on the mountain led to choosing the twelve, solitude in the garden led to the cross and waiting in the upper room led to Pentecost.
I wonder what waiting in my life might lead to?
We love life when things are happening; we hate waiting. As North Americans we are particulary bad about it. In this society, to wait is to lose time and opportunity. To wait is to be unproductive. Yet, if truth be told, perhaps the real reason that waiting is so hard is that to wait means to listen to my own thoughts. It is to hear what is really inside. In the busy times, there is no opportunity for reflection and change. We simply react with little thinking. In waiting there is no external activity, no crowds, no accolades; there is only the silent company of memories.
Before launching his church, Jesus had the apostles wait. He did not speak to them for ten days. They waited. Sat. Contemplated. Lingered. Questioned. Remembered. Surely their understanding of Jesus was crystalized in those quiet moments. Surely their understanding of who he was, who they were and what they were to do became starkly clear. Only after this would God use them.
Today we want to skip the waiting and the quiet. We believe that we are lazy people if we sit, contemplate and linger. Perhaps that is why our busyness never leads to the productivity we truly crave. Perhaps God is still hoping to launch some of his greatest works on earth but he needs his people to wait first. After all, a night alone on the mountain led to choosing the twelve, solitude in the garden led to the cross and waiting in the upper room led to Pentecost.
I wonder what waiting in my life might lead to?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Romans 8:18-27; Waiting
After reading this section three times all I can hear is John Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" playing through my mind. He sings of being powerless and waiting for change to come. So much of this text speaks of the same thing. Creation is subjected and anxious for change. We are striving to patiently wait for redemption. Even our prayer life is incomplete and we must let the Spirit lead us in it.
All my life I've been active and worked hard. Waiting patiently for change is not a description of who I am. In fact, it has often been something that those who have shaped me despised. Perhaps that is because waiting patiently in hope is different from being lazy and distant, though on the outside they might look similar. Yet for me, waiting is work. Waiting patiently takes effort.
I can hear Moses say to the Israelites on the side of the Red Sea as they were being hemmed in by the Egyptians, ". . . you need only to be still." (Ex. 14:14) So today I will work at not working out my spiritual issues. I'll focus my activity on being still before God and waiting for the world to change.
All my life I've been active and worked hard. Waiting patiently for change is not a description of who I am. In fact, it has often been something that those who have shaped me despised. Perhaps that is because waiting patiently in hope is different from being lazy and distant, though on the outside they might look similar. Yet for me, waiting is work. Waiting patiently takes effort.
I can hear Moses say to the Israelites on the side of the Red Sea as they were being hemmed in by the Egyptians, ". . . you need only to be still." (Ex. 14:14) So today I will work at not working out my spiritual issues. I'll focus my activity on being still before God and waiting for the world to change.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)