Click...the sound of hitting the letter C on the keyboard. Seems like a good place to start after such a long absence. For a guy who says he finds joy and release in writing I sure don't write much. What's that about? Seems like I need to be in a certain kind of 'abandoned' mood that happens to coincide with having something I want to write about. Both of these are too rare for me to ever become a regular writer. I read about writers...how they sit down and crunch it out regardless of something as fickle as mood. The professionals have a deadline for a task masker. I only have a vague sense that in some realm I am drawn to write...maybe even called to do so. But that's not what I came here to talk about.....
I hear people saying how they want to "get closer" to God. How they are just not in the place they believe they want to be in their spiritual walk. Before sharing a response, a disclaimer. Anything that follows is certainly intended to be offered in the utmost humility....the kind of humility that has been backed up by years of falling, failing, floundering and flubbing virtually every aspect of life. The school of hard knocks for sure and graduation doesn't even appear on the calendar!
Thinking in pictures is how it usually happens for me. There's this phrase regarding the "elephant in the room" that I love. It really scratches my pragmatic itch. Our mutual capacity to talk all around something without ever getting to the real point is indeed truly amazing (amazing, a word that seems to be currently overused in daily conversations. It's so curious....where do such language nuances find their start? How do they grab hold and go so "viral". And when will the word "like" finally find it's way back out to pasture? But I digress....like big time).
There is no argument with the value of having a desire to get "closer to God". But mere hope is never a plan. If a journey of a thousand miles truly begins with the first step, then the first step cannot be some elusive, over-spiritualized mumbo jumbo. The first step of getting closer to God is clear....give him and your relationship some time, each day, day after day. There, I said it. But why does it seem somehow over-simplified and naive? I'm not sure but whenever I hear people lamenting about their need to get closer, to hear from, to sense the presence of God more in their lives it seems that the spending-time-with-him concept is just not that enthusiastically received.
Perhaps it's because 'time' seems in such short supply. The spirit of our age is rushing, tread milling, multitasking, eating while we drive. Heck, if we could we would be talking on our cell phone to one party while texting yet another on a second phone. I vaguely remember back in maybe the 1970's when the futurists were predicting that our biggest challenges would be managing the great increase in leisure time. Supposedly there was to be a shortening of the work week. Coupled with the efficiencies in our households because of all the labor-saving devices (ie, microwaves and electronics) it was predicted that we would be awash with spare time.
Alas, the excess leisure never really materialized and most people were certainly never challenged with the problem of managing an over supply of down time. No, instead, every time-saving device only led to a perverse tyranny of speeding up our expectations. Our need now has grown for things to move at warp speed just to be normal. Instead of problems with too much leisure we got road rage and second jobs to make ends meet. The average person experiences ten pounds of daily life trying to cram into a five pound bag.
So perhaps suggesting spending time as the answer to just about anything should not be expected to be met with enthusiastic amens. Time is in short supply and I get that (there is another over-used phrase that is part of our now vocabulary...I get that). But whether there is a shortage of time or not still does not change the truth. Truth may be assaulted from every direction but at the end of the proverbial day it is still gloriously the truth.
And the truth is that if Bobby wants to develop a relationship with Susie then by gum he is going to have to find the time to do it. Relationships have just never responded all that much to new-fangled approaches. Sure, maybe Bobby can initially text his way into Susie's life. But the development of depth and lasting love will only come from the frequent investment of raw minutes robbed away from lesser important activities.
And so it is with us and Jesus. He loves each of us unconditionally. He yearns to be in relationship with us. And for many of us, we hear ourselves saying that we want that too. If that's so, then the journey must both begin and be regularly fueled by the investment of our precious time...there just are no relational shortcuts. And, like anything else we wish to make a high priority, that time can only be found within the ledger sheets of our lives. To find time we will have to rearrange the columns of our God-given 24hours to allow for it.
If only....if only this world could experience every Jesus-believing person spending one hour per day with their creator/savior. What a phenomenal difference I can only imagine that might make. And yes, initially that may have to start with a mere 'five minute' quiet time. But Bobby would never grow with Susie if that is where it stayed. Five minutes can grow to ten and ten to twenty. But where to find this time? For me, finding the time to be with God once the starting gun has been fired for the day has never worked. How do you really hear the still quiet voice while fighting traffic? I have also struck out when I have tried to parlay bedtime into prayer time. The exhaustion of the day simply short circuits my best laid plans and sleep seems too often the victor.
No, for me, however long I want to sit at the feet of Jesus must come when I set the alarm the night before. To the thirty minutes it takes me to get out the door I must add the amount of time that Jesus and I will spend together the next morning. Actually that part is easy enough. The discipline that is needed (doesn't all change and re-prioritization require us to fight for them?.....It seems our good intentions always meet with resistance...thus the need for discipline) is to not hit the snooze alarm. To roll out of bed on the first notes of the radio alarm tune, to suffer the fifteen to twenty seconds of agony until my feet are on the floor and moving. Thankfully it gets progressively easier from there....
I recently voted and they gave me a little red sticker that so proudly proclaims "I VOTED". (Sporting that about town is not my style...I put it on an UP elevator button as a friendly reminder to others.) But that got me to thinking ...what if we started seeing more and more people getting closer to God because they gave him the time of day? What if "I Spent Time With God Today" buttons started appearing all over. Wouldn't that result in many getting closer to God? Might not the world benefit from having more participants who had met with the Lord of Lords and heard his still, quiet voice? I sure have to think so...
I hear people saying how they want to "get closer" to God. How they are just not in the place they believe they want to be in their spiritual walk. Before sharing a response, a disclaimer. Anything that follows is certainly intended to be offered in the utmost humility....the kind of humility that has been backed up by years of falling, failing, floundering and flubbing virtually every aspect of life. The school of hard knocks for sure and graduation doesn't even appear on the calendar!
Thinking in pictures is how it usually happens for me. There's this phrase regarding the "elephant in the room" that I love. It really scratches my pragmatic itch. Our mutual capacity to talk all around something without ever getting to the real point is indeed truly amazing (amazing, a word that seems to be currently overused in daily conversations. It's so curious....where do such language nuances find their start? How do they grab hold and go so "viral". And when will the word "like" finally find it's way back out to pasture? But I digress....like big time).
There is no argument with the value of having a desire to get "closer to God". But mere hope is never a plan. If a journey of a thousand miles truly begins with the first step, then the first step cannot be some elusive, over-spiritualized mumbo jumbo. The first step of getting closer to God is clear....give him and your relationship some time, each day, day after day. There, I said it. But why does it seem somehow over-simplified and naive? I'm not sure but whenever I hear people lamenting about their need to get closer, to hear from, to sense the presence of God more in their lives it seems that the spending-time-with-him concept is just not that enthusiastically received.
Perhaps it's because 'time' seems in such short supply. The spirit of our age is rushing, tread milling, multitasking, eating while we drive. Heck, if we could we would be talking on our cell phone to one party while texting yet another on a second phone. I vaguely remember back in maybe the 1970's when the futurists were predicting that our biggest challenges would be managing the great increase in leisure time. Supposedly there was to be a shortening of the work week. Coupled with the efficiencies in our households because of all the labor-saving devices (ie, microwaves and electronics) it was predicted that we would be awash with spare time.
Alas, the excess leisure never really materialized and most people were certainly never challenged with the problem of managing an over supply of down time. No, instead, every time-saving device only led to a perverse tyranny of speeding up our expectations. Our need now has grown for things to move at warp speed just to be normal. Instead of problems with too much leisure we got road rage and second jobs to make ends meet. The average person experiences ten pounds of daily life trying to cram into a five pound bag.
So perhaps suggesting spending time as the answer to just about anything should not be expected to be met with enthusiastic amens. Time is in short supply and I get that (there is another over-used phrase that is part of our now vocabulary...I get that). But whether there is a shortage of time or not still does not change the truth. Truth may be assaulted from every direction but at the end of the proverbial day it is still gloriously the truth.
And the truth is that if Bobby wants to develop a relationship with Susie then by gum he is going to have to find the time to do it. Relationships have just never responded all that much to new-fangled approaches. Sure, maybe Bobby can initially text his way into Susie's life. But the development of depth and lasting love will only come from the frequent investment of raw minutes robbed away from lesser important activities.
And so it is with us and Jesus. He loves each of us unconditionally. He yearns to be in relationship with us. And for many of us, we hear ourselves saying that we want that too. If that's so, then the journey must both begin and be regularly fueled by the investment of our precious time...there just are no relational shortcuts. And, like anything else we wish to make a high priority, that time can only be found within the ledger sheets of our lives. To find time we will have to rearrange the columns of our God-given 24hours to allow for it.
If only....if only this world could experience every Jesus-believing person spending one hour per day with their creator/savior. What a phenomenal difference I can only imagine that might make. And yes, initially that may have to start with a mere 'five minute' quiet time. But Bobby would never grow with Susie if that is where it stayed. Five minutes can grow to ten and ten to twenty. But where to find this time? For me, finding the time to be with God once the starting gun has been fired for the day has never worked. How do you really hear the still quiet voice while fighting traffic? I have also struck out when I have tried to parlay bedtime into prayer time. The exhaustion of the day simply short circuits my best laid plans and sleep seems too often the victor.
No, for me, however long I want to sit at the feet of Jesus must come when I set the alarm the night before. To the thirty minutes it takes me to get out the door I must add the amount of time that Jesus and I will spend together the next morning. Actually that part is easy enough. The discipline that is needed (doesn't all change and re-prioritization require us to fight for them?.....It seems our good intentions always meet with resistance...thus the need for discipline) is to not hit the snooze alarm. To roll out of bed on the first notes of the radio alarm tune, to suffer the fifteen to twenty seconds of agony until my feet are on the floor and moving. Thankfully it gets progressively easier from there....
I recently voted and they gave me a little red sticker that so proudly proclaims "I VOTED". (Sporting that about town is not my style...I put it on an UP elevator button as a friendly reminder to others.) But that got me to thinking ...what if we started seeing more and more people getting closer to God because they gave him the time of day? What if "I Spent Time With God Today" buttons started appearing all over. Wouldn't that result in many getting closer to God? Might not the world benefit from having more participants who had met with the Lord of Lords and heard his still, quiet voice? I sure have to think so...
