Sorry I haven’t posted in a while… I hope everybody is doing great! Well, this week, I’ve been super lucky. We’ve had a five day weekend because snow and ice have been making all of the roads slick and really just can’t seem to melt. And this morning, as I was getting ready to go back to school, I was thinking about how refreshing the break had been. I had been able to relax, play in the snow, go sledding, have a sleepover with my friends, go to the mall, catch up on watching Psych (which a new episode comes on tonight, if you’re keeping score….) start recording, and even break out some of my acrylic paint and a canvas which had been hiding in the closet for quite some time. It wasn’t exactly a quiet, doing-absolutely-nothing weekend (which can really drive me crazy- I’m a people person), but it was really refreshing. For the first time in quite a while, I was actually not completely dreading school. Which by the way, is quite an improvement for me. I mean, I like learning, I love seeing my friends, even the work isn’t too bad, its just the whole cycle gets crazy. You throw in waking up at 5:30, spending an hour on a bus, sports practice, a few hours of homework, getting like 6 hours of sleep, and life gets crazy. And repetitive. And sometimes you just need a refresher. The same thing goes for God.
We can get super caught up in our lives- really easy and really fast. It’s easy to blow off God. I mean, we’re busy busy busy people. There’s always somewhere to go, someone to see, something to do, some homework or project or test to work on, and then, oh yeah, there’s God. But you have to remember, this is God. God, the creator of life. God the Alpha and Omega (beginning and end if you translate from Greek, just for trivia’s sake…) God the Father. Our Father. The One who loves us. Who made us. The Jesus Christ who loves us so very much that he gave the ultimate sacrifice on the cross so we can spend eternity with Him. Oh yeah, so that’s just God. I don’t think so.
In order to love God, we must know God. And in order to know God, we have to understand who He is. We must reflect. Meditate. Pray. That’s where the silence comes in.
Life is loud. Trust me, I know. Life is very, very loud. Somehow, someway, there’s always noise, it seems. But when I talk about silence, I don’t really mean like physical (soundical? Is that even a word?) silence. I mean spiritual silence. Now that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be quiet. I mean, it’s easier to pray and reflect when the radio and your phone and the computer are all off. But the silence I’m talking about is spiritual. We must silence ourselves and our hearts in order to listen to God.
Right now, think about the lunch table. If your friends or you are anything like my friends and I, you’re loud and crazy and you LOVE to talk to each other. Now imagine a conversation at the lunch table. Or even on the bus, if that sets the scene better for you. Now thing about what you would say. What you friend would say. Then think about what the 15 other kids at the table would say when they just happened to be hearing your lovely conversation. One thing I’ve found is, no matter what you say, someone’s going to disagree. Always. So at this lunch table, with the fifteen other kids who were really just eavesdroppers, someone’s bound to disagree. (Work with me here, I really do have a point. I promise.) So the debate begins. Then it gets to where about ten kids are having a conversation and talking over each other. A lot. Now this isn’t really a bad thing, trust me, it happens all the time. It’s really what conversation is. But whatever point you were trying to get across to your friend is not going to get there if you’re talking with these other people the whole lunch.
The same thing goes for God. In our lives, we have to silence our hearts. We must focus on our goal of salvation and promise that no matter what may try to get in the way, we’re going to spend time with Jesus. So this week, I challenge you to silence your heart. Pray to God, and draw nearer to Him and His Holy gift of salvation. It’s really refreshing to be able to get silent with yourself and pray. Just like the snow days gave me a refreshing perspective on school, prayer and intimacy with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, can give us a refreshing perspective on life, faith, and salvation.
May God Bless you this week!
Avery
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