Acts 28; Spiritual Hunting

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.

Mark 1:29-39; The Quiet

Jesus drew a crowd. They followed him from the synagogue to Peter's house and brought more people with them. Early the next morning, the crowd was back. Peter and the others surely thought that this meant success. They wanted Jesus to show up for the crowd; but Jesus left. He left to spend time alone in prayer. Then he left with the apostles to introduce the kingdom to other villages. The crowd meant nothing to him.

It seems to me that North Americans seek to be busy. We seek it like Jesus sought the quiet. We seek the crowd and events while he left them behind. We act like Peter attempting to get Jesus back on stage, though we should act like Jesus leaving the stage behind. As long as we measure success by popularity and numbers, we will never experience the peace that comes from time alone in quiet places with the Father.

I have often looked at Jesus' solitude moments and contemplated what went on. As God, did he need to express a list of petitions to the rest of God? Surely not. Yet isn't that what we commonly believe prayer to be? We use it like a Christmas list of needs, e.g., "I want, I need . . ." Yet it must be much more. Jesus sought it when life became busy. Instead of energizing off of the crowd, he energized from his time in communion with the Father. He experienced a relationship that filled his soul, gave him peace and clarified his purpose. I don't think that can happen in a crowd.