Honk if you love peace and Quiet


            I saw that saying on a billboard and chuckled to myself as I thought about the incongruity of it.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it contains some element of truth pertinent to our lives.  I hear more and more people talking about how busy their lives are.  “I had two meetings this morning, a working lunch, and a mandatory division meeting after work...”  You know how it goes.  The pace of life seems to quicken with the passing of each year.
            Sometimes it is just the nature of our day.  You’ve had those “busywork” days when you were active and constantly in motion but got to the end of the day without a lot of concrete results.  Even church life can get crazy.  Do you remember when summer was “down time?”  Those days are gone.  Summer camps, mission trips, squeezing in a family “vacation” when we run from activity to activity.  Now we are at the end of summer and our school is about ready to begin another year.  Fall programs are getting in the "blocks" and are preparing to take off when the Labor Day weekend is past.
Most of the “stuff” we’re involved in is good.  It is even profitable for the kingdom.  Still, I feel like I’m cooking up a recipe for “stress soufflé” and “panic pie” just thinking about it.  The details of your life are different, but the result is the same.  Not much time to sit and recuperate.  More importantly, not much time to spend meditating on God and His goodness to us.  For that matter, how often do we even stop to remember that it He for whom we live and whom we serve in so many of these things?
            Psalm 46 comes to my mind.  “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”
            When your life seems like a textbook illustration for those verses, it is important to remember the encouragement of the remainder of the Psalm.  It is a challenge to look to the one who never gets stressed.  In the midst of all the turmoil and turbulence of life, we can take some time to look to the Lord.
God says it this way: “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.”  It’s almost as if God is saying “relax; I’ve got this under control.” (Psalm 46:10)
Try it.  Take 15 minutes, or even half an hour and just be quiet.  You’ll have to work hard to find a place in the house where there is no music playing or TV show in the background, but find one.  Put aside your Blackberry, kick your feet up and spend some time in quiet meditation.  Spend the time focusing on your relationship with your Heavenly Father.  Focus on who He is.  Contemplate His thinking about the world and what He wants to accomplish.  Whatever “it” is; it’s not out of control, just out of your control.
We live a fast-food lifestyle.  We need to learn (by practicing) to spend some time being quiet.
What are some of the ways you make time for the discipline of being quiet?  What gets you back on track when the ride has been spinning too much?

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