Hush Ya’ll

Last Wednesday I spent about four hours at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. And I think I have mentioned before that I have been going through a weekly discipleship program with the pastor of my home church in Loganville. For the last ten weeks or so we have been meeting and going through some material and discussing the Word and it has been great.

Our last meeting is this Wednesday but last week he asked me to come out to the monastery in Conyers so that I would have the opportunity to enjoy some quiet time with God. He told me that no good discipleship program is complete without experiencing some solitude and silence with God. I arrived around 9 a.m., he showed me around to a few locations and then set me loose to basically just spend time with God until we met up again for lunch. Which forced me to spend about two and a half hours alone with God. After the solitude, my pastor and I enjoyed lunch in silence and then we took a walk around the grounds to chat about my time with God that morning.

I don’t say this to say “Hey, look at me the super Christian missionary guy.” I tell you this to say that I wish I made time with God more of a priority in my schedule.

There have been a few times over the last month or so when I have had a glimpse into what the spiritual discipline of silence and solitude looks like and I must say that it works. This last Wednesday at the monastery was one of those glimpses. There is something amazing about just sitting in complete silence and listening to what God has to say. Too often when I pray I just try to fill the air with all of this info that I think I need to let God know about and not often enough do I just sit in silence and say, “ Ok God, what do you want to tell me today?”

I am trying to get serious about spending time with God each morning before I begin my day. Unrushed, unhurried, undistracted time with God. I want this in place before I move to La Paz because it is going to be so easy for me to get distracted with “ministry” in La Paz and totally neglect my time with God. And it is tough. I found it difficult when I worked 40 hours a week and it is still tough now. Even when I am not working a normal 9-5 job. No matter what our job is…musician, computer programmer, financial advisor or missionary…we will always find things to fill up our schedule and distract us from time with God.

I want more time with God and I want a deeper relationship with Him. But lately it seems like although I want that end result I am unwilling to make the necessary sacrifices to get there. A deeper relationship with someone requires spending time together.

How can I expect to magically grow closer to God by not spending time with Him? I just don’t think it is going to happen.

And I think that our culture totally frowns on us stopping to be still and listen to God. I think sometimes we are afraid of what God might tell us if we stop, get quiet and just listen to Him.

I struggle with this. But I want to grow in my relationship with God. I just encourage you to do whatever you can to spend some down time with God. Some undistracted, unhurried, unrushed time.

We just might grow closer to Him.