“Do you want more of
God? Then shut up and listen.”
Leonard Sweet
“Be still, and know
that I am God!”
Psalm 46:10
I know
someone who cannot be still. If they are not physically moving then they are
seated in front of a computer or mentally engaged with some hand-held
electronic device. They are always in motion – physically or mentally. They
don’t sleep very well. I’m not surprised. Their mind simply doesn’t know how to
shut down and be still. The consequence is that they are always exhausted. Perhaps
you know this person. Perhaps this person is you.
One of the
first lessons God teaches us is that we were created in a manner that requires
us to be still on a regular basis. In fact, God demonstrates this lesson to us
in the opening pages of the Bible; God creates the heavens and the earth and
all that is in them. And on the seventh day God rests. To watch some people it
would seem that they have more energy than God. They simply have missed God’s
intention that we stop occasionally. I wonder if Isaac Newton was making a
personal observation when he famously declared that a body in motion tends to
remain in motion.
The person
I speak of – and I am thinking of a specific individual – is not only
physically exhausted, they often live their life in a spiritual wasteland. They
want more of God, they desperately long for more of God but God seems far away.
I know because they often ask me how they can have more of God. I haven’t
shared with him Leonard Sweet’s elixir, “Then shut up and listen.” That’s another
thing with my friend, they don’t listen very well. How could they? Their mind
is always racing with one thought or another.
My friend
needs to take baby steps. First, simply stop from time to time and watch
people. Notice their behavior, their activity and how they engage with others. Make
mental notes, “What do I see?” Naturally, this is still mental activity but
activity that notices a world apart from oneself. Once that has been practiced
for a period then what is required is actively listening to others. As those in
the helping profession would say, active listening is putting aside any thought
to a response – it is simply hearing another fully. Active listening frees us
from a sense of isolation – another difficulty my friend struggles with.
Once there
is some familiarity with active listening – it is mastered only by the most
disciplined – the most difficult step is to read scripture and sit in silence
listening for God. Again, quoting Leonard Sweet, if you want more of God then
shut up and listen. This isn’t easy. It has often been the most difficult part
of my own spiritual journey.
Psalm 46:10
provides guidance. Placed in the context of the whole Psalm, what we are asked
to do is “lean forward” with attentive, expectant hearts for God’s speech to
us. This is not an invitation to a passive posture, physically, mentally,
emotionally or spiritually. We are invited to a specific activity – leaning
forward to hear a word from God. We wait for something to be revealed to us
previously hidden.
I believe
that my friend is sincere in his desire to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. What
is required is that the pathway of discipleship be located in a place of
stillness before God. If he can find this beginning place – stillness before
God, time alone with God – he may discover that his exhaustion, difficulty with
restful sleep and loneliness will all be diminished. More, the Psalm promises,
what he will know with certainty is God.
Joy,
Doug
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