My mom used to try without much success, to get my sister and me to play the Quiet Game. I must confess, I usually lost. I have always been a talker. I blame it on my dad’s side of the family. I come from a long line of talkers. My sister and I are only fifteen months apart, and looking back, I know my poor mom would have probably given just about anything for a few precious minutes of quiet when we were little. There’s wisdom in a well placed Quiet Game.
Some people seem to thrive on noise and chaos and some instinctively know that we all need some quiet time whether we want it or not. We are surrounded by noise just about every waking moment. We wake up to an alarm or radio or ipod. Many of us have the television on while we get ready for the day. Our time in the car involves talking with our kids or listening to the radio, audio books, ipods, etc… If we ever get a free moment during the day, we are likely to check Facebook or post or follow something on Twitter. We might use our smart phones to check sports scores, e-mail or the weather forecast.
After work is not much better. There’s usually helping with homework, kids’ sports practices or games. We have to make dinner and often watch television or talk to kids while we are accomplishing that task. Then there’s cleaning up dishes, working on laundry, ironing and maybe sitting down to watch Duck Dynasty. We may get out our smart phones again to check in with the cyber world before falling asleep in front of the television, dragging ourselves to bed and starting over again the next day. Does this routine sound familiar?
If it does, where in this typical day do we find time for God? I once asked my middle school Sunday school class to draw a pie chart of what percentage of time they spent at school a week. Next, I asked them to put in slices for homework, sports and other extracurricular activities. Lastly, I asked them to draw in how much time a week they spent with God. As you might expect, it was a puny slice. To be fair, I did my own pie chart and it didn’t look too good either. If you really want an introspective experience, try teaching middle schoolers. There’s no winging it. You have to do your homework and you have to be authentic.
As we discussed our individual pie charts, we all agreed that if you only spend and hour or two a week with God by going to church, you’re not spending enough time with God. We asked the kids how they would do at baseball or soccer if they practiced one day a week. Keep in mind, some of these kids are hard-core and are on travel teams. They all readily agreed they wouldn’t be very good players. Then, can we be good Christians if we only spend a couple of hours on Sunday with God? The answer from the kids was a resounding, “no.” We talked about possible solutions.
The first and foremost answers were time management and less noise. (From the mouths of babes!) God often speaks to me through my Sunday school kids, so I began examining my own time management and noise level. It turned out to be pretty loud. How could I hear God, if I was never quiet? Was it possible that what I perceived as God not answering my prayers was my inability to get quiet and listen?
One of my favorite Biblical illustrations of this is Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:11-13, God tells him to go to a mountain. There was a terrible wind that busted up rocks, but God was not in the wind. There was an earthquake, but God was not in that either. Then there was a fire, but God was not in the fire. At last, there was a gentle whisper and that’s where Elijah found God. What does that tell us?
I think maybe we need to be more intentional about carving out a few quiet moments for God each day. Find a quiet spot in the early morning or after dinner or after the kids go to bed; the time doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is we consistently seek some quiet time with God, time for spiritual things like: praying, reading the Bible, writing in a prayer journal, listening. No cell phones, televisions, ipads or laptops allowed. If we ever actually get quiet, we may be surprised at what we hear. What do you think about quiet time?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂