stop

Slow Down.

Yeah. You.

Breath. Look. Listen. Feel. Understand.

What do you end up doing with a suggestions like that?

Do you ever feel like you are moving so fast that you struggling to just keep up. And then some nut tells you to slow down and you are thinking, you don't know my life!

I am discovering more and more that the faster I move...the more I miss so much of what God has for me...and my life everyday. Moments where He is ready to meet with me. I totally miss them. No clue they were even there.

We have somehow built a culture that glorifies the workaholic - you know, a good steward who "accomplishes" much and pushes hard...or maybe a better way of saying it is a busyaholic. Always going. Always moving. Always doing. Rarely a moment to breath and really see what is around us. Resting. Standing still. Drinkin a coffee and watchin the sun set is hardly profitable...or watching a movie with people you love...waste of time. You with me?

Yesterday Rosie wanted to go for a walk. I had (as usual) lots to do so I really didn't want to. But decided (brilliantly) to go anyways. Honestly, one of the better decisions I have made recently. We walked to Starbucks and she preached to me a discourse on noticing life.

"Dad, name 5 things about trees. Dad, name 5 things about the sky. Dad, name 5 things about mom. etc."

Very stirring for me. And I was not sure why...all I know is that there was an ache in my heart that was not there before...at least not that I had been aware of...or maybe not that I had let myself feel.

Jim Elliot said, "wherever you are, be all there". Seems like the antithesis of my life. I have noticed, in reflection, that I am constantly catching myself living for the next season. Wait until. I can't wait for. That will be. Tomorrow we are going to....

I wrote several months ago about a spiritual discipline called Kavanah. It is a Jewish term that is roughly translated as "pre-meditation"...though it means something deeper than what that word conveys.

It involves a preparedness for us to see that every action can be completed with an orientation towards God. Translation? We can meet with Him, and see Him everywhere and in everything. Its really not about what you are doing...but more about the reality that His Glory can be anywhere...and everywhere.

It is choosing to live a pre meditated life: God, where are you in this? in this? in this person? in this situation?

I can drill an oil well, repair a drain, write a paper, check a patient, study a text, cook a meal, drive a truck, pour a coffee, preach a sermon, watch the sunset, teach a class or ride a bus...and commune with Him. When I embrace all that He has given me and all that I do...and live it with joy...He smiles and His presence is there.

Does this make sense? Problem is that most of us live so fast and so busy, marching to the beat of a task master that drives us to "do"...we miss Him and what He is saying all the time.

So slow down. Try it. Just for a day...or a morning. Look. Listen. Feel. Ask. and let me know how it goes.

Let me leave you with a Prayer by Ken Gire:

Help me, O God,

to have the humility to sit at the feet of great art,

whether is it a painting or a person on the street,

a scene from a movie or a score from a musical

a sunset or a Psalm,

and to look and to listen and to receive what is being offered me there.

Give me grace to submit to its scrutiny,

seeking not to do something to it,

But that it might do something to me;

Seeking not in some way to judge it,

but that it might, in some way, judge me.

eyeswideopen,

j