This piece was written for the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church 2013 Advent devotional blog Peace Abounds. It's scheduled to post on Monday, December 16th. I'm posting it here, too - sort of an advance preview - for friends that I'm traveling with on a light journey. It feels right. So here goes...
The world is loud and busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas. For many years, I would listen to the sometimes seductive, always loud call of “more” even though my heart ached for quiet solitude. There was always one more present to buy, one more party to attend, one more fill-in-the-blank to do.
After an especially chaotic series of events in my life, I decided that I needed a radical experiment. I needed silence. I needed open spots on my daily calendar. I needed to embrace what I called “nothing.”
When I turned off the soundtrack of my normal life and created a space for quiet reflection and contemplation, I found my way to a place of peace within me. It took me a while. I squirmed in the silence. I had to practice doing nothing. It felt awkward. Somehow, it also felt amazingly restorative. What it really felt like was something holy. This time I set aside for nothing turned out to be the space where I could meet God.
Creating room for solitude and silence really is a practice for me. During Advent, I like to find time to sit quietly in the glow of a candle or the lights on my Christmas tree. I count my blessings. I recharge my spiritual batteries so that when I pick up my worldly responsibilities, I can do so with the peace of God’s love in my heart.
Lord, please help me remember that we are Your children and that we are loved just as we are. Help me remember that it is not the busyness of doing of things that is important in the world. Showing up with an open and loving heart is always what matters most. Amen.
How do you create space in your daily life to connect with God?
No comments:
Post a Comment