Sometimes the beginning of a blog is a rising up of an idea like the sun or moon breaking the eastern horizon. As I sit and think, a thought will rise up above my usual mental chatter. As I chase the point, it begins to materialize into a conglomeration of both the familiar and unfamiliar. Harvesting seeds from previous ponderings and study, a hybrid awareness is birthed with fresh understandings and stimulating discoveries.
Other times, the beginning of an idea results from a festering splinter just under the skin. For example, I get negatively inspired by personal irritation. Usually, the annoyance is injected into my cognition by an overused or underappreciated phrase of “church talk.” Religious hyperplasia from a familiar cliche to expressed instead of developing a personal vocabulary to testify to God’s activities or desired activities. This particular blog was initially inspired by hearing such an expression.
When I initially set my fingers on the keyboard, I only got one sentence typed when nothing more came to mind. For two days, I have pondered this idea while going about the everyday activities of life. Still, nothing happened. This is not an uncommon experience. Often, an “idea” remains in a file on my computer as just a title or an abbreviation of an idea. It’s not that the idea is nonsense; it just has had no connection with life at that moment.
This morning, I was about to leave the thought in that file folder again; it occurred to me I was trying to spew out a spiritual peeve. I had forgotten what started this blog, “collecting and preserving stuff that matters to me” so my grandchildren will know something of my life with our Creator.
Now that you have suffered with me through my confessional explanation of deviated motivation, here is the phrase, “Time alone with God.” The phrase has many other wordings: Quiet Time, Devotional, Bible reading, prayer time, etc. What troubles me about the phrase is that what is referenced is a period of morning or evening minutes in which we read the Bible or something a reader of the Bible has written and pray through our “list” to the Bible’s Author. It has been my experience that most Believers are not driven to their “time alone with God” by a desire just to be with God. In these few minutes, we often are more concerned with getting something from God than giving something to God – our uncluttered presence.
We are pushed by our spiritual leaders to daily Bible reading and prayer, and this they should do. We start with great enthusiasm and hope for a new way of living. But alas, our intentions get squeezed out of our schedules or rushed through to complete our “to do” list. What started out as a grand plan became another source of guilt or frustration or discouragement or all three.
What is terrible about this is that the “full life” Jesus promised becomes just another phantom desire of a busy life. The “new” Jesus promised becomes the labor of polishing what already is.
I am not a highly disciplined person. Probably, I am not even a lowly disciplined person. I am an emotional person. Accordingly, I have had many ups and downs in my inner person that has often bloomed into my behavior. Inconsistency has been my most lasting consistency.
However, I have finally learned a truth that has altered my inner person and stabilized at least a part of my behavior. I do not know whether I learned this from God and then discovered the corresponding Scripture or the Scripture finally got through to me. Here is the text; it is from the thirty-seventh Psalm,
Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires. (HCB)
My life has been radically changed and relaxed since these thirteen words took root.
To help me understand what I mean, I have taken the phrase “Time alone with God” and reversed the order of words to “God with alone time.” My Creator took the initiative and invited me to be “with” Him. When He gives an invitation, he also provides the ability. His desire becomes my motivation, not to accomplish but to “be with” my Creator. Being with my wife, children, grandchildren, and friends is not a discipline. It’s a want to. “Alone” is necessary for various reasons, but in particular, God loves to be with me, not us. “Us” is essential, but that supernaturally comes later. I do not believe God has relationships with congregations but individuals who congregate. Time is the most precious possession I have. Giving it to those I love is easy, not a sacrifice. I do not have to make time for God. He has already made all the time I need to have the life He promised.
Where you spend your time clearly reveals what you choose to desire, to love.
Photo: This is not a patriotic blog post but this is the red, white, and blue season. A stone wall around a cemetery in Cross Plains, TN.
Baldwin Heirlooms 