Shhhhh…

Is your average day like mine?

Kids, Peers, Cars, Music, Food, Air Conditioning, Chores, Cleaning, and so much more?

Each day we get swept into the routine we have voluntarily set for ourselves as we motor from activity to activity spending so much time on the go that we forget.

We forget to listen.

It’s hard to hear the silence.

Through the bustle of every day we don’t even take notice of how loud our world has become.  Even as I type this in my office, alone, I hear the swamp cooler on the roof and the click of the keyboard and the laughter of children in the building outside my door.

I have taken silence for granted.

Have you ever been introduced to something so refreshing that you cannot imagine how you ever lived without it?  Think back to life without cell phones if you can.  We didn’t know what we were missing, yet now we can’t imagine life without them.

When we went into the Grand Canyon for our rafting trip I expected grandeur and excitement and new compadres.  What I didn’t expect was the quiet.

There were times when I could hear nothing but the sounds God created into the world: the trickle of water, the buzzing of insects, the wind in the reeds, and the bird song. In those moments, with no deadlines and no expectations, I found peace.

Now that I am back I struggle more than I used to with all the noise.  I crave silence and solitude.  I crave the inner peace that comes from true communion with creation.

Can you relate? Jesus could.

Even he often withdrew to lonely, quiet places to pray – to be with His Father on a mountain or by the shore.

God may be whispering to us, “Here is peace.” Yet we are so busy, distracted by the noise, that we miss His peace.

I want to hear the silence again.  I want to hear His creation again.  I want to hear Him.

Do you?

Asleep in the Boat

It was a dark and stormy night…

Sounds like Snoopy is writing again, eh?

Seriously, the Apostles are in the boat and the wind and waves have picked up because of the storm.  Where is Jesus? Asleep in the bottom of the boat.  HOW CAN HE SLEEP DURING THIS STORM?!

There is much fear on the boat tonight.  They can’t make any headway, and the boat is in danger of capsizing. It seems perfectly logical to be afraid during such a storm in quite a small boat.

Once, when I was a boy, I was fishing on Bull Shoals Lake in North Arkansas with my grandparents.  All of a sudden a huge storm came over the lake.  Waves were crashing over the sides of the bass boat.  Rain was coming down in sheets stinging our faces.  The closest land was an island with rocks on the shoreline – no sand.  We pulled close to shore, and Grandpa put us on the bank while we rode the storm out.  We could see the boat dock but couldn’t make it there because of the ferocity of the storm on the water.

I remember being scared, but only a little, because I trusted my Grandpa.

Jesus is still sleeping.  How can he have such peace during this storm?

The disciples wake Jesus with a jolt.  “Don’t you care if we drown?” They were in the boat with the Creator of the universe, but they didn’t understand. The didn’t yet know the true identity of the One who could sleep during a fierce storm.

Jesus got up and said, “Peace. Be still.”

That’s what I want in me – peace.  Don’t you?

The apostles were afraid because all they could see was the power of the storm they were in at the moment.  They had more trust in the storm than in the One sleeping in the bottom of the boat.  It shocked them that Jesus was able to take charge of the storm the way He did.  Then Jesus scolded them. “Oh you of little faith.  Why are you so afraid?”

Why are you so afraid?

We are afraid because in the storms of life, even though we claim allegiance to the Father, we still struggle for control and therefore put our trust more in the storms than in the One who is bigger than the storm. We put more trust in the chaos than the Creator.  We put more faith in what we see than our Father who loves us and has promised “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

When we find our identity as children of God, of the Father, of Abba (daddy), then what can stir our peace?

Think of the baby sleeping in his or her father’s arms.  Isn’t that peace?

Jesus said that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  We are little children when we put our trust in our Father instead of the storm.  He’s bigger than any storm you can experience.  He may not take you out of the storm, but He promises to bring you peace and comfort through it as you trust in Him and listen to the Spirit living within you.

The more I surrender my selfishness to a life filled with the presence of the Father the more I find peace.  If you want that peace, you can find it too.  If you want to discuss this more feel free to let me know.  I’m always interested in helping others along this path we walk together.  Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near…and life in the Kingdom is so much more fulfilling.