Happy and Blessed - Pt. 14

 

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. (Psalm 119:97-104 ESV).

 

Jesus loved people. But Mark notes that Jesus also needed to get away to spend time with God. So, early in the morning he found a quiet place to pray. Mark's account is instructional: get away and go be with God (cf. Mark 1:35). I've learned the importance of that practice firsthand. I use a little different language when describing it. I like to think in terms of “shutting out the noise.” The picture I’ve chosen is one that invites us to sit in the silence of God’s beauty and revel in His wonderful grace.

 

I’ve never lived in a place where I could have such a place. That’s especially true where I live now. We are about 30 miles west of Ft. Worth, just far enough away to be considered the beginning of the west. It is typically very dry and very hot. In fact, as I write this devotional it is after 6pm and the air temperature is 108 degrees with a heat index of 112! Dry or not, that’s just plain hot!

 

We have friends who live in Santa Fe, Tennessee. They have a wonderful home just off the town square. It is a very small community and thus very quiet. Their screened in porch is shaded by old canopy trees and their garden is full of wonderful flowers with humming birds flitting to and fro. Looking across the back of the property, it is not unusual to see some wild turkeys or whitetail deer meandering across the opening in the trees. We have stayed with them several times since leaving Tennessee. My favorite spot is on that porch, sitting in one of the rocking chairs, and shutting out the noise of the world. I can always hear God best when I get into a place of silence.

 

These are the places where we can more easily respond to Jesus' invitation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (cf. Matthew 11:28). He invites us not just to escape but also to discover his Word, as Psalm 119 exclaims: "Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long." The importance of meditating in quiet cannot be overstated. I hope you will determine to leave life's noise and find a quiet place. At first you'll hear interior noise: extraneous thoughts and reminders of obligations. Keep listening. God speaks in the silence. Getting away regularly to listen for God was Jesus' discipline. And if he needed to do that, don't we?