For thus said the Lord God, the
Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be
saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your
strength. But you refused…”
- Isaiah 30:15
It had been a great morning at the farmer’s
market to that point, but my family and I had underestimated how hungry we
would be, so I ran across the street to buy another breakfast burrito. I placed
my order at the taco truck, took my receipt, and stepped off to the side to
wait. Knowing it would be at least ten minutes before the food was ready, I
reached into my pocket to pull out my phone, only to realize that I had left it
with my family across the street. So silently I stood there waiting, with nothing
to do but watch people make their way through the farmer’s market.
And as the minutes ticked by, something dawned
on me: I was bored…and startlingly, I couldn’t remember the last time that had
happened. After all, we now live in a world where you never have to be bored. If you want social interaction, you can
send a text, make a phone call, send a message on GroupMe or WhatsApp, or write
on somebody’s Facebook wall. If you want to learn something, you can check out
the latest up-to-the-minute news on Twitter, read an article from your favorite
online publication, or listen to the podcast of your choice. And if you just
want some passive entertainment, then YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu are always
there for you. Thanks
to the Internet, smartphones, social media, and a general cultural drift toward
constant activity, we now live in a world where we expect to be stimulated
every waking hour of the day, or at least to have the option.
But
with all that stimulation comes a consequence: we begin to forget how to rest. We
are encouraged in Psalm 46:10 to “be still and know that I am God,” but for
those of who reach for our phones not out of need but compulsion, I wonder if
we still know how to do that. From the first chapter of the Bible to the giving
of the Ten Commandments to the earthly ministry of Jesus, the Bible is abundantly
clear about the importance of rest, of stepping away from the cares and the
busyness and the distractions of life in order to reconnect with God. “In
returning and rest you shall be saved,” says the prophet in Isaiah 30:15, “In
quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
That
verse ends ominously as it bleeds into the next: “But you refused…” Since the days
of the Old Testament—probably since Adam and Eve’s first week out of the garden—we
have been putting off rest, avoiding quiet and stillness whenever we can. But
the Bible is clear—it is in rest, in those quiet moments when activities cease
and you are left without anything to do but think and pray, that you are best
able to hear God’s voice. So spend some time today away from a screen, away
from your desk, away from the tools of your trade, even if only for a few
minutes, and just be still enough to listen for God. You may get bored…but
maybe that’s not such a bad thing. After all, when you’re not doing anything,
it’s a lot easier to pay attention to what God is doing.
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