On the Surface

".... To seek to live a quiet life, to mind your own business  and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you." 
        - 1 Thesselonians 4:11

 "Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk - not as unwise people but as wise - making the most of the time, because the days are evil."
    -Ephesians 5:15-16

I have always had issues with time.  Never enough of it.  Seems like I have always met deadlines by the seat of my pants, pushing and running the entire way.  Many who know me say I have too much on my plate, that I try to do too much and juggle too many balls.  Probably a lot of truth in that.  At 62, though, I'm not sure any of that is going to change at this point.

I don't think I am alone.  Our society is moving at warp speed.  Families are rolling out of bed at 6 am, running to jobs and school.  Then after school/ work, there are sports activities, meetings, church responsibilities, house maintenance, homework.....the list goes on and on.  Many of us drop into bed with no down time before, and wonder why our minds are still going 90 miles an hour.  Sleep eludes us because we can't gear down enough to sleep.  Before we know it the alarm is going off and it starts all over again.   No wonder we are zombies.

In an article in the New York Post dated January 4, 2014,  Dr.Stephanie Brown points out the consequences of this frenetic activity .  Here's just a section of what she wrote:

"In a vicious circle, the exhausting fast pace of life promotes overstimulation and overscheduling, which become chronic stressors that lead to behavioral, mood and attention disorders. We cannot see that we are causing our physical, emotional and behavioral health problems as we try harder to go faster, and then turn to medication to treat the unforeseen consequences. We believe we should be able to go this fast and there is something wrong with us if we can’t keep up. We also see changes in our attention and thinking. Technological advances were supposed to free up creative thinking, but the mass of incoming information has actually eroded our attention and our creativity. People have less time to reflect on anything as they become dominated by a need to act, a need to be online, robotically always checking. Multi-tasking stimulates internal chaos and fragmented attention." ( underlining mine)

"People have less time to reflect on anything".  Not only do we have no time to take care of and concentrate on our families and relationships on earth....there's also little time to develop our relationship with Christ.  And all relationships suffer when time is not spent together.  Web MD lists 10 essential factors for a healthy relationship.  Guess what #3 is?   It is:   " Enjoying and valuing time
together and actively working to make it happen."  Think that can apply to prayer and our relationship with Christ?

Recently God has been showing me how superficial my prayer life has become.  Maybe it has always been that way, but He is really pressing the matter lately.  I've been thinking about that.  If I call my sister, spend 2 minutes talking constantly, saying hi, this is what's going on in my life , love Ya, see Ya..........what quality will our relationship have?  We have become the closest when we have taken time with other to discuss our deepest issues and to lean on each other for support.

All of us also have people we speak with occasionally, but only on a surface level.  Like the lady who
delivers my mail.  I think she knows me when I see her.  We smile and wave and occasionally speak. Thinks like "Hi!  How are you?"  Or " Nice day today!"  But if I had a family crisis or an emergency, I doubt that she would show up.  We just don't spend that much time together.   We don't really know each other.

I don't think our relationship with God is much different.  We wonder why we have little discernment.  We question why God doesn't give us the answers we seek, why He feels so far away.  In my experience, it is when I am experiencing Him ' on the surface' that I experience these relationship problems.  I'm going to be working on that.....deepening my prayer life. As He always does, God seems to throw specific things in my direction when He wants to make a point with me.  Right now it's prayer.  So that will be my focus for a while, and I'll let you know what turns the road has for me.

How about you?  Is your prayer life just 'on the surface?  May be time to do some digging......

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In Case of Emergency

      Well, as I sit here full of drugs for bronchitis, I'm mellow enough to tackle the last part of James 1:19 regarding anger.  Of all the emotions we experience, this one can be the most damaging to us and those around us.  Anger, combined with the tongue James speaks of later, can destroy relationships, lives, jobs, government entities, even countries.  It is a powerful and vicious tool that is almost always used in the wrong hands.       We all remember the example of Jesus becoming angry at the temple.  Since we know Jesus did not sin, this demonstration was more about righting a wrong than an expression of anger.  We sometimes call this righteous anger.  I fear that we use this example as Christians to justify our anger outbursts.       As I write this I am thinking about the last time I was really angry.  I have been doing much better with this due to the hel...
Read more

When Silence Breaks Your Heart

Image
"How long, Lord, must I call for help but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save?" Habakkuk 1:3 We've all been there. Prayers that bounce off the wall.  No answers when we cry out day after day, week after week, month after month.  We question the goodness of a God who seems silent when we, desperate for answers and solutions, beg Him with tears, moans, and sometimes anger.  Why????? Often, when we look back, months and sometimes years later, we see what The Plan was.  Sometimes we don't. But when we are actually going through the experience of petitioning our God for our needs and we feel unheard and unloved, it's not easy. If you are familiar with Lysa Terkeurst, she's faced a number of battles recently when she has cried out to God for answers.  She experienced a marriage crisis and breast cancer within the last two years.  But in her new book, "It's Not Supposed to Be This Way", Ly...
Read more

Who Will Pray?

"When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."         - Nehemiah 1:4 My friend and I are planning a retreat.  There are a lot of things to do to put a retreat together, and as with any project there are a lot of people 'behind the scenes' that contribute to the project.  I met with one of those people this week, and I think I got my "retreat experience" when having that 15 minute conversation. One of the things that happens before the retreat is a lot of prayer.  We have one prayer warrior we count on for a lot of this.  I met with her to give her the names to pray for, people who have registered for the retreat so far.  This lady is 86 years old.  She has not had an easy life.  She has a child to cancer, has watched other children suffer with it, and faced many other difficulties and trials along the way.  Her body does no...
Read more