Quiet

Life is loud.

I live in a big city, in a small house, with a lot of people. My home is busy at both ends of the day and every hour in between. Because we are a homeschooling family, our young ones are underfoot all day; and because the economy is difficult, our older ones, though both working and in school, are still with us.

I also live in a society that is electronically manic. Cell phones are portable computers seldom further than our pockets or purses. Facebook is a constant background of friends whose daily life details constantly run around in our heads. We are so easily distracted. I am sure there is a study that shows that our attention spans are significantly smaller than they were 10 years ago. We can't listen or watch anything for more than a few minutes without needing to be doing something else.

Put my busy house and my e-mania together and you can just about see the cacophony inside my brain. Yet I am also a disciple of the Lord Jesus. I have been called to a ministry of intercession for my family, my church, our youth. I don't see any biblical precedent for e-mania, first century edition. Even though Jesus was constantly surrounded by crowds who pressed so close He jumped into a boat to prevent them from crushing Him, He still had a constant connection going with heaven.

Each May (the prayer moms' anniversary), I ask God to give me a theme for the year ahead. For two years He spoke to us about e-distractions. One year the theme was "Hide, Abide, Revive, F5"--as in, spend regular quiet time with Him in order to become a mighty F5 (like a tornado) spiritual force. The next year it was "Shut off, shut up, shut down, and listen!"--a bit more firmness in His voice as we sought to really get this thing right. We did a lot of talking about how disjointed our prayer lives become when we are e-manic. We decided to take a day a week and unplug; never a perfect process, as we are all married, moms (duh), and either work full time outside or inside our homes. We stay off the internet and turn off our phones when possible. And we recharge...reset...refresh our connections with our Lord so as to remember our calling as intercessors.

I love my unplugged day. Sometimes my life calendar is busy that day, but I can feel the depressurization even in the midst of that as my computer and phone stay quiet. Sometimes I have to have my phone on, but I set alarms for each hour to prompt me to pray for different aspects of our church and youth ministry. The important thing is to purposefully draw away from the e-distractions and closer to Jesus. I choose Saturdays as my unplugged day, and find that it helps me prepare my mind and heart for worship and Bible study the next day; I go to Sunday services clear-headed and ready to hear from God through the Word through my pastor.

I feel like this is a theme for the church today...it's not just for a group of busy moms in one corner of a busy city. The church is so distracted we have a hard time hearing God. More on this topic will find way onto this blog, because it is something God has pressed so on me for the past few years. But for today's post, this suffices. I encourage you, dear reader, to pray and ask God what YOUR unplugging could look like. Then do it. Faithfully. And watch Him sweep your head clear and your heart clean.

Because life is loud, and His voice often is still and small. We need to hear it.