So, here is an interesting problem that has popped up over the last few days:
The world has become like stupid levels of noisy. It’s like that scene in “Man of Steel” where Clark starts to hear all the world at once and it is driving him crazy, so he goes and locks himself in a closet till his mom comes and tells him to quiet the noise.
Except, I’m not Superman. (seriously, I’m not.. cause, you know… I’m BATMAN!)* Continue reading The World is Too Loud
Ok, mark this day down in your books.. I stand corrected.. kinda.. What do I mean by that? Read on, and find out..
Ok, so, here’s my scenario…
The phone rings. It’s a business call, so I stop what I am doing to take care of that. Then, my son text’s me at the same time that someone else sends me an email that I have been waiting for. So, I try to forward the email, but before I get hit send, my boss is calling me to do something. In the middle of that, someone comes in to the office that needs to see me, specifically, and as I walk back to my desk to take care of what they needed, I am confronted with the desk full of work that I was trying to take care of when the I got the phone call. Remember the phone call? Yeah, I had to go back up and look again too.
Does this sound anything like your day? Maybe not the same particulars, but the feeling that everything is way out of control, and you are just a soap bubble on the water tornado being sucked down into the drain. And to add to that.. the garbage disposal is on.
This isn’t anything new, and for most of us, this isn’t anything all that rare. Quite the opposite, this is the norm. So the question comes down to this.
In the middle of all the hectic-ness of our every day lives, do you ever just stop and take a moment and concentrate on nothing more then connecting with God. Taking that moment, and focusing everything you are on Him, allowing the rest of the world to ‘become strangely dim’?
My moment today was what inspired me to write this. It was less then a minute, it was in a very hot truck, and it was awesome. No, their weren’t any angelic tunes flowing through the radio, I didn’t have this sudden burst of peace wash over me, and my day didn’t get any easier. But, in the middle of my storm, I stopped, I gave God everything, and for the briefest of moments, it was just Him and I.
My encouragement to you is this, in your every day walk with God, don’t forget that He is there, right there, waiting for you to recognize His presence, even in the midst of the chaos. So, take a moment, and seek Him, and you will find Him.
Take a minute to just “Be still and know that He is God.”
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God has called you. He prepared a way for you to come to Him. He is running down the road toward you.
Will you desperately pursue Him? Will you abandon all else to run to Him? Will you embrace the call that is drawing you home into His open arms?
The work of the cross behind us, the throne of God before us, will you heed the voice of God in your life, regardless of where it might lead you?
He did not call you to safety, security, comfort levels, or peace the way the world would understand these things.
He has called you out of darkness, He has called you out of death.
He has called you to war. He has called you to live dangerously. He has called you to action.
Wake up. Hear where He would have you go. Hear what He would have you do.
Step up, step out. Go!
And then, when you step across the door of eternity and stare the creator in the eyes you can hear these words that He will say to you…
“Well done. Enter into your rest.”
He came to give us life, and that more abundantly. He gave us His peace, not as the world understand peace, but the peace that passes all understanding. He leads me by still waters.
I read this in the Bible and am astounded by the fact that, in the midst of all that I have going on around me, I don’t really have to worry about anything but where my attention stays focused. The rest of the world is doing what it can to pull my attention away from the Creator of Heaven and Earth, but He, He is calling me to Himself, drawing me closer, telling me to keep my eyes on Him, and in that I can have rest.
There is a story of Jesus and the disciples crossing a lake in the middle of the night, when this great storm comes and starts to swamp the boat. It is so fierce that all the disciples start to worry about their lives, and that they might die. So, these 12 men turn toward the back of the boat, and go and wake up Jesus to tell him about what’s going on. So, Jesus rebukes the wind and the waves, and all is calm. It doesn’t say so, but I like to think, Jesus turned around and went right back to sleep.
Now, think about this.. 4 of those 12 disciples were experienced fishermen. They were use to rough seas, and they were petrified of dying. Yet, this son of a carpenter was sleeping right through it.
The disciples problem? They were to concentrated on the storm. They failed to realize that if Jesus could sleep through something, then they should be able to also.
God has not called us to a quiet life, He has not called us to sail on calm seas. He has called us into the storm, to forge ahead and to live dangerously because He has sent us to go. Notice, at the beginning of the story Jesus says this, “Let us go to the other side.” If God is sending you into the storm, look to see where Jesus is.
It’s easy to miss the rest when you are looking at the storms of life. But, I see Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat.
Lord, help me rest in the back of the boat.
Thoughts from the Front 