Seeking God in Busy Times
As I said yesterday, quiet time with God is important. But there's also a danger that we do our quiet time and then we get up and leave God behind. We need to cultivate a life of constant closeness with God rather than just doing quiet moments with God here and there. So I want to also commit to seeking God in the busy times, not just the quiet moments. There's no separation of time with God and time without God in our lives. Every breath is a moment with him.
Separated by the Busyness
Now, when Shereen and I were in London last year, we made the silly mistake of going to the center of London the day after Christmas. I've never seen crowds like that in my life. Turns out in the UK, everything goes on sale on Boxing Day. And so people camp out on the streets to get in to the shops first. And we went into a Primark which is like a general clothes shop, and it was absolute chaos! We ended up getting separated. The phone we were using as a mobile hotspot so that we had a data was dead - this was at the end of the day - so we couldn't call or message each other, and it was pandemonium. We were both trying to connect to the shop’s WiFi so we could send each other messages but the place was so crowded, the connection kept dropping; and we got a little bit panicked, actually, because we were both searching through the sea of busyness to find each other. Of course, eventually we did.
Pulled from God by Busyness
But, you know, sometimes I feel like that in my day with God! There's so much action, there's so much going on, so many people to see and things to do. And before I realized, I discover that I've wandered away from God. I haven't checked in with him for a while, and I've gone on my own mission and now I sort of look around and don't know if he's close or not.
He Hasn’t Left - We Have
Now, the truth is, God doesn't leave our side. We push ourselves away or distance ourselves, but He sticks to us. We just forget about that closeness. The secret is to do everything with God, to never consider yourself alone, but to always recognize His presence with you. And we do that through prayer by turning every moment into a prayerful moment.
Constant Prayer
In fact, do you remember a movie called Ladyhawke? It was a eighties classic. One of the characters, Phillip, is constantly talking to God throughout the movie, and I love it. It's lovely to watch. He keeps saying, “Well, Lord,” and he starts every sentence by kind of turning it to God. And I love that! There's a friendship between that character and God that inspired me.
Let me ask you, are your inner thoughts wrapped up in yourself or in God? Imagine if our thought patterns became meshed with God so that whatever we do, God is a part of it. I want to see God every day, not just in quiet times, but even when I'm as busy as I can be, talking through everything with him, relying on him prayerfully in every moment so that all throughout the day, him and I are close.
Maybe you will join me in seeking him in the busiest of times.
