When the kids were little and all piled in our minivan, we would often play “the Quiet Game”. It’s a game designed by parents that need a few minutes of peace and, well, quiet, and it works great if you have a competitive family and multiple kids. One of the girls, no matter how hard she tried, could not stay quiet long. What started as a wish for at least five minutes of silence, over the course of a few rounds of the game, would inevitably turn into a car full of laughter even from the adults because it was funny to see her struggle to keep her thoughts and words from coming out during the game. Her twin, though, she could win easily every time. Introverted as she was, it didn’t seem to matter; when the game started, it was like her mouth went into a steel trap, and the quieter daughter went silent, like a sub in enemy territory! It was a lot of fun to play, and we tried to keep the game going much too long into the high school years, but ours is a loud family that has a hard time with such restraint.
I have intentionally sought out quiet places to meet with Jesus since I have come back to Him decades ago now. I would rise very early in the morning when I had a job that required me to be at work by 7:00 a.m., to find some peaceful moments before the kids got up. There were times I would wake up from my journaling at the table I was sitting at to find the last written word had turned into a long line that ran right off the page as I drifted off to sleep because it was so early. But I found every sleepy moment worth it as the LORD would meet with me, teach me, speak to my soul, and draw me nearer to His heart and way. These days I have the freedom to protect my schedule so I can have uninterrupted long and quiet moments that linger if necessary with the LORD because I have found them so rewarding. No matter how busy my life is, I have learned that I need these times to get with God and realign my heart with His. That is why I named the blog Abiding Workbench, because you have to put in the time at the bench learning, and then work out those principles in life, to grow as His apprentice.
Many of you reading this probably already know how necessary, and how fulfilling, these times with Jesus are. But some of you may feel you are in too busy a season to make it a regular thing in your days. And I really believe that our world has gotten more and more filled with distractions that keep us from quiet times with God. If I had had a cell phone all those years ago when I was sitting at the table at 5:00 in the morning, there for sure would have been a temptation to scroll Instagram before I cracked open my Bible! But think about how easy it is now to fill every moment you aren’t doing something else with something on your phone. Now we have something to distract our attention while we are doing “boring” things so we don’t have to sit in silence. Sitting in a waiting room, we scroll. Waiting for the commercials on TV to finish, we scroll. Talking on the phone to someone, and we scroll! We are growing less comfortable doing one thing at a time when we can do it and scroll, and any free moment we encounter is uncomfortable so we fill it with scrolling. We need to learn to sit in the silence again.
We Need to play the quiet game.
In the quiet, God has a chance to speak to us in a way we may actually hear Him. When we embrace quiet, the Spirit can stir up our minds to attend to what God has for us. Jesus Himself understood how important it was to find quiet places to get alone with God, and we see Him do it more the busier, more intense, and difficult His ministry became. For sure, we need more quiet moments with God too, and the crazier and busier your life is, the more you need them! It is unnatural to think about taking a few minutes to sit quietly before God when we all have such pressing things to accomplish, and time seems so short, but like everything else, He is able to create so much more out of the little we have to offer Him. He makes every second worth it. It will be uncomfortable at first; you won’t know what to think about or what to say to Him, but don’t stop; it will become more and more natural. You will have a million more distractions all happen the moment you try to carve out a couple of minutes for God. Expect it and don’t let them deter you. Write down whatever is trying to disrupt your focus and come back to it a little later; it will still be there in a few minutes.
I am not asking you to begin by spending hours in solitude and prayer. I am simply saying, start playing the “quiet game” with God. See how long you can go, then try to go longer next time. Over the course of a week or so, you will see your ability to sit quietly with God improve. If you have a regular meeting time with God, add the “quiet game” to other parts of your day, see if you can extend these brief times with God throughout your day, and you may begin to see the day differently because of the renewed awareness of the presence of the LORD in it. Let’s become the kind of people that didn’t first reach for our cell phones during commuting times, elevator rides, standing in lines, waiting in rooms, at the lunch table, or during a commercial break, but instead our first reaction during these times is to sit quietly with the LORD and ask Him what He’s up to, what He would like to say to us, and if there is something we need to be praying about for someone around us we can see.
If we start by playing a game, it makes it fun. There are no losers in the quiet game, whether you break easily or can lock it down for hours, it doesn’t change your Father’s love for you. He just wants to be involved in your life. Oh, by the way, He never needs a break from you, that is a human thing, the love God has for you is never impatient, always perseveres, always hopes, and is constant so you never need to worry about that. And His love is waiting eagerly even to spend a few minutes with you throughout your day.
Take a breath, let it out, get quiet, get ready, GO!
Leave a Reply