All my life I had heard of how God wanted to be first in my life. And then I vividly remember a moment sitting in a college class listening to a religion professor give a lecture about how God’s desire was not to be our first priority. I remember a generic list of priorities appearing squeakily across the dry erase board. “God” filled the number one slot and the professor squeaked a line straight through it and proceeded to draw a circle around the list of priorities and told us that that was how God wanted to participate in our lives—not by being first, but by being everything. God’s desire is to consume our lives so entirely that every ordinary thing we do is out of love and in partnership with God.
And it’s from this same concept that I believe we come to understand the proper practice of quiet moments. We sometimes practice quiet by quieting our surroundings, but more importantly we practice quiet by quieting ourselves. The quiet doesn’t magically transform us, but becoming quiet brings us to a place where we can be transformed, renewed, and recentered. In the quiet, we dwell with God and abide in truth and recalibrate our perspective. Though we cannot transform ourselves through any recipe of spiritual disciplines, they can help to properly posture ourselves in the presence of God. Quiet moments are about shaping us to be more mindful and available of where God wants to meet us, in both the planned and unplanned moments of everyday life.
I’ve found myself aching more and more for the consistency of a daily quiet time—for a regular space carved out in each day to dwell in truth, to recenter, to reflect, to find rest, and to remember who I am. I’ve had some stretches where I’ve practiced this well, but there have also been stretches marked by inconsistency and frustration. In those times I’ve quietly scolded myself for my lack of effort or discipline and while effort is an element, it didn’t feel like that was the struggle. The struggle was in my forgetfulness and in my limitations of where I expected to encounter God. Weary of the vague and endless quest of trying harder, I’ve been opting for an alternative route of leaning in and examining the cycles and patterns that get in the way of these habits over and over, so that I can combat the challenges with the truth and pertinent intentional practices. Maybe you have some of your own recurring thoughts and challenges that get the way as well. Maybe some of the challenges in this series will resonate with you:
The Challenge of Perfectionism
The Challenge of the Heart
If any of these struggles sound familiar, I’m eager to work through them with you in these upcoming weeks. If they’re not what you find yourself struggling with, I would encourage you to pause and make some space to examine what might be getting in the way of regular dwelling with God. There is power and enlightenment in putting clear, definitive words to the struggles.
May we have the courage to examine our lives honestly. May we recognize the importance of quieting ourselves and facing the things that are getting in the way. May we allow God to speak truth into our lives, illuminating what we need more of and less of. May we learn to look for God in all the wild and uncommon places. May we invite God into the corners of our lives that we think are too ordinary and mundane to matter and may we be surprised by the glory that we find there.
