A blogger friend recently wrote about verbal diarrhea. Basically she finds herself getting into trouble because she says more than is required of her. Lately she has offended people because she would go for the quick joke and then realize too late that it was not in the best of taste.
Boy, can I relate. In the last year I have become aware of how much we talk and say nothing of consequence. I find myself at work sitting on a trash can away from the nurses station because of the noise level and endless chatter. Don't get me wrong, I like to talk. Too much. And I will be more than happy to tell you the latest gossip, or about my kids, or my cat, or whatever. But I find myself disgusted with what I say, then you know, you have to repent from all that, and I'm tired of doing it.
Recently we had a guest speaker at our church, one thing that he talked about was sitting quietly before the Lord. Even in church. Wow. Have you ever tried to do that? I hear a lot of people talk about being ADD (myself included) and how it's hard to just sit still. So today during the worship service I tried to just sit and hear the Lord. And I sat. Then I refocused. Then I thought about what I had to do today, then I refocused. Then I thought about this week, then I refocused. Then I thought about how hard it was to do that. Just to sit. Just to think about the Lord. Not anything in particular, but was He saying anything to me? Would I listen if He did?
Remember the story of Moses in the cave, waiting for the glory of the Lord to pass by? The storm came, the winds, the rain, and God wasn't in any of it. It was the quiet. And if that were me and not Moses, I would have missed it while I was busy playing Mahjong or twilling my hair or something.
I'm sure I'm not the only one. It is torture for me when I try to have a "quiet" time, cause I can't focus. This morning I realized that as much as I dislike exercise, besides exercising my body, I need to exercise my mind. Build up my endurance, my abilities to train my mind to be still. I'll never grow in the Lord no matter how much I read, how much I know, if I can't hear His instructions. How can I hear Him tell me where to go, who to speak to, who to love, if I'm not in tune with the basic of how to hear Him.
Come to the Quiet. Come and sit at His feet. Come and listen. Come and receive. Come... and be quiet.
