Be still

Youth November 13 2013 “Castaway” with Tom Hanks -In that movie, due to an airplane accident, Hanks’ character finds himself stranded alone on a deserted island with his only companion being a volleyball he named “Wilson” -As we see him progress for hours, days, weeks, months and even years, we find him becoming a much different person -Much of this is due to the fact that his world is different than it was -No more modern conveniences -No more hustle and bustle / stress -No more noise -No more companionship -Yet, to a great degree, he is changed for the better -He comes to realize the unimportance of such things -He comes to know himself in a much deeper way than he could have with those things -What Hanks’ character goes through is, in a sense, what every believer who longs to be a disciple of Christ needs to go through from time to time Psalm 46:10 Be still and know that I am God. What does he mean by be still? Last week we talked about solitude, this week we are going to focus on stillness. What is the first thing you do when you get in your car? How about when you get home, what is the first thing you do when you sit down in your living room, or bedroom? We are addicted to noise and action and interaction aren’t we? It is impossible for us to be still and know that God is God when we are never still. Stillness is not the uncanny ability to keep from moving a muscle. It is not an environment or an arrival point. Stillness is an attitude—a condition of the total you. It’s your heart, mind and soul all completely silent and at peace. Colossians 3:15 We are guilty of this. Tara complains that we go through the whole day and hardly talk any, but then once I lay down at night I have so much to say. That is because I am guilty of not being still during the day. I am not completely where I am until I get home and shut down. We have to learn to shut down through out the day. Stillness is imperative to knowing God. Stillness allows you to gain God’s perspective on Himself and allows you an opportunity to show your perspective to Him. You cannot be intimately friends with anyone in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of life. It is impossible. Stillness also leads to worship. Louie Giglio defines worship as Our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God. A distracted mind will not worship God. A cluttered heart will not worship God. A still mind however, and a still heart has no choice but to think of God and worship God for who He is. Why is our worship service put together the way it is, let me explain. We start off with an upbeat type of song to get you singing and to lead into the welcome. Then as you move around you have a chance to shake hands, hug, high five and greet others in the church family. After that we close out that song and sing a middle of the road type of song, not upbeat, not slow to move you away from socializing and into an opportunity to worship God in stillness. The next song is a slow song that leads into a prayer and the offering followed by the sermon. In other words by the time I get up to speak on Sunday mornings you have gone from walking through the door with your minds all cluttered with work and stress and relationships and bills and homework or last nights’ events to singing praises to God, to the ability to sit still and listen. Unfortunately many people miss this, last Sunday I watched a couple people talk through the entire songs and it made me angry. Not because they were being disruptive but because they were robbing themselves of an opportunity to be still and worship God. SO please, try to shut out and shut up life so that we can truly hear from God on Sunday mornings. Here’s the problem, with Iphones, and facebook, and twitter and instagram along with all the other social things you cannot get away and be still, truly still. Instead what we end up doing is making our solitude and our stillness resemble a game of freeze tag. In freeze tag you run around until the person who is it tags you. Once they tag you, you have to stay frozen there until someone else comes along and tags you back in to unfreeze you. We sit quietly, we are still until we hear the next thing go off. An email, an update, a tweet or a text message then we are off and running again. Be still, shut it all down and watch what happens to you during that time. Here is your challenge for this week. Try to find a 2 minute point during the day to drive in your car without the radio on. Then, tonight at some point find a 2 minute time to sit without any sound, cellphone or television going on. Let that grow from there. I want to add that last night when we got home P.J. walked into the house and went straight for the television. She sat down in her usual chair and grabbed the remote. Tara and I weren't really paying that close of attention until we both acknowledged what she was doing. She got right up from the chair and went into the kitchen, from there she went to the microwave and set the timer for 2 minutes. She then returned to her seat and sat still and silent with the remote in her lap until the timer went off. As soon as the timer went off she turned on the television and went on about her business. So, lesson learned you just never know when P.J. is actually listening lol. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!