“It takes just
a second, but that’s my spiritual discipline—turning my chair to be available
for God.”
-April Yamasaki
(Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal)*
The simple,
seemingly trivial act of turning one’s chair in order to be available to
God…how absurd! And yet, how beautifully
true! There is so much in our lives
today that distracts us from our relationship with God, from seeking to live as
Christ lived, from walking the path of Christian perfection (thanks JW!). All of the media outlets, the ads, the
fear-mongering blogs and talking heads on various news agencies, the sheer
amount of crap that companies relentlessly try and sell us, there is so much
that gets in the way! This seems
especially so during the season of Advent, the time the Church sets aside in
order to prepare God’s people for the Christ, both his coming as a child as
well as his coming in glory the second time around.
We get so caught
up in Christmas fervor, so bent out of shape when people say “Happy Holidays”
(which is technically correct), so angry when the abbreviation “X-Mas” is used
in place of “Christmas” (the “X” is a Greek “chi” which stands for “Christ”),
so maddeningly wrapped up in the purchasing of all the right gifts and making
it to the right parties, etc., etc. that we lose sight of that which we are to
be preparing for. Maybe we just need to
turn our chair a bit…
And that’s just
the Christmas timeframe. Let’s not
forget about all of the other things in our daily lives that can potentially
distract, if not separate us, from God.
Work, family, friends, addictions and negative habits, apathy and
callousness, the list is nearly infinite; some of these things are good in and
of themselves, and some, not so much. If
we allow them, they can all become distractions just like the windstorm, the
earthquake, and the fire was for Elijah as he was waiting to hear from
God. And yet, God came as a still small
voice; God came in the quiet, the silence in the void of all that activity.
This is
certainly not the only way in which God communicates with us, but it is rather
telling that God can speak to us in the quiet found amidst all the commotion…if
we would but turn our chairs, opening ourselves to the holy and mysterious, to
the God who can speak in the silence. We
have become so accustomed to noise and activity that for many, quietness,
silence on our part, can be quite uncomfortable. It’s uncomfortable for me…to just be…to be
present and open to the Lord to speak and act and move and for me to not be
doing something. But sometimes that’s
precisely what we need, a little bit of divinely inspired discomfort paired
with our willingness to truly listen to God.
Thanks be to God
for such an uncomfortably powerful way of communicating with us. May we be more attuned to the silence, the
quiet, during the season of Advent as we prepare ourselves for the coming of
our Lord.
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