When’s the last time you shut off the music, went outside by yourself, turned off your phone and sat in silence? I know shutting off one’s phone is a rare and somewhat unclear procedure these days. However, it is necessary to have moments of reflection and quiet if we are ever to have peace. Our world is fast paced. It is excruciatingly demanding at times and often overwhelming. So in an effort to seek solitude we plug in the headphones and open our laptops. That can be called rest, sure, but it is closer to zoning out and escaping than peaceful, soul-restoring rest. The nourishment we seek cannot be found in any source other than Christ alone. He is our peace, our hope, our strength. If we are scared to turn off the music and cease our incessant chatter, then our peace is not being founded on God, but on the passing things of earth. If we are scared to sit in silence and just commune with God, then something needs to change.
God is so good. He blesses us with His glorious nature and His continual presence. He offers companionship to all and is always waiting to hear from us. He wants you to speak to Him. He wants me to speak to Him. He desires us, friend. What a joyous thing that is! The Lord of Heaven and Earth is eager to receive us, our worries, our hopes, our very selves despite our many imperfections and failings. So what is wrong with us? Why don’t we experience an ever-present desire to speak to Him and foster relationship?
If the longing to talk to God is faded, or the possibility of time alone with God makes your feet take off sprinting the other direction then something is off. You are living too much in and for this world.
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” - 1 John 2:15
We are so busy seeking success and rest in the wrong places. We feast on the world all day, looking for avenues of personal gain, only to come home and seek rest in the things of the world: our televisions, social media and music that promotes the values of a corrupt culture. What kind of rest is that? What kind of life is that?
We are terrified to stop and be still. Surely if we stopped for long enough we would recognize the vast emptiness present inside us. But to acknowledge that would be to acknowledge a wrong lifestyle, and to acknowledge a wrong lifestyle is to acknowledge the need for change. And we can’t have that! Certainly not. We must cling to it and continue gorging ourselves on the things of the world. We must feed our appetites and stuff ourselves so full that we cannot recognize the starvation of our soul. But we are going to the wrong places to be fed. We consume everything society has to offer only to end up hollow. A relationship with our Lord is the only source of true satisfaction. He beckons to us, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
We are all guilty of loving the world too much. We are all guilty of plugging in those headphones instead of enjoying God’s presence. But the rest we seek and the strength we need cannot come from ourselves and cannot be bought, borrowed, or stolen. It must come from the One who made us. Specifically, the One who made us to be complete in Him.
