Slow Down to Wake Up

I was reminded recently about the benefits of silence. Sometimes when we are with children (the very young to even our grown children), it is hard to get any kind of quietness, let alone silence. Yet, the stillness and silence is needed if we are to know God.

Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.”  We don’t stumble into stillness—we choose it. Or, like me, stillness chooses us when life slows us down with an illness, a break in our normal patterns, a “forced” pause in our day to day.

If we are still, God can speak in ordinary things. God’s glory isn’t reserved in the mountain peaks or by a gurgling stream in the middle of nowhere. Isaiah 6:3 says the whole earth is full of it. That means our kitchen, our hallway, our drive to work. We don’t have to go far to find God. He isn’t distant. The problem is that usually we are distracted and we don’t see the glory of God, nor do we experience His peace in the stillness.

God isn’t found in the frenzy. He is found in the pause. When we slow down, something shifts in our mindset. We can begin to see God in the ordinary—in that smile of our child, in the way the light filters through the leaves, or the sweet trill of a songbird. Those moments, those quiet, still moments--can be sacred as we hear God’s voice. We remember that we don’t have to always “fix” things, we don’t have to strive to earn God’s nearness. Stillness is not the absence of all activity; it is the presence of awareness. We need to wake up and hear God.

Sometimes we get to a point where even in our devotions we have to have a sound track behind us playing worship music. Not that music, or a Christian podcast, or even hearing God’s Word spoken out loud is distracting all the time, but sometimes we need the silence. The time with no agenda other that being silent in front of our God and letting Him heal, guide our thoughts, remind us in our soul that HE IS GOD.

And when life resumes its frantic pace and constant noise, we have that reservoir filled with God’s peace and direction.

“May I learn to love the silence…that I might hear Your voice.”  Let’s wake up in the silence of His Presence.

Because Jesus Loves Children!

---Shari Coelho

Children’s Ministry Director, SRBC