The meaning of spending time with God
Posted by The Skyliner on February 25th, 2009Matt Huff
Staff Writer
Matt Huff
With Spring Break looming around the bend, it has admittedly become much harder to concentrate on schoolwork. Even against the constant, frenetic noise of essays, projects, exams, and presentations, we students can hear the quiet, but hopeful mutterings of those two glorious words in our imminent future—Spring Break.
But where is the hope of Spring Break outside of school? When life itself grows weary and confusing, where can we look for rest? Unfortunately, it is typical of the human condition that when we are provided a chance for rest, we transform it into work, or at the very least, distraction. We cannot fathom a moment disconnected from anything, constantly bombarding ourselves with cell phones, television, or just plain company. I mean, who can imagine a Friday night alone, right? If A doesn’t happen, then B must; if we are not here, we’re there. The human race is always in motion.
With all these schedules and plans, when do we have time to lean against our favorite tree? When do we have time, like Whitman, just to consider a single blade of grass? When do we have time to simply be with God?
Often we feel the responsibility to sort out all of our struggles with the confusion and complexities of life by simply packing them into a Jansport backpack and marching our way up the hill. In our arrogance, we carry the weight of past sins, present decisions and future ambitions in our makeshift packs, struggling to hold it all together. We convince ourselves that we can find the answers to all of life’s questions by just throwing them in the backpack and keeping busy.
But God has something different for us. He has no desire to see us bogged down under our self-imposed burdens, trudging from one weekend to another. Like Bunyan’s pilgrim, He wishes to bring us to the cross that our packs may be loosed. Isaiah says, “In repentance and rest is our healing,” and that is exactly what we find at the foot of the cross. Christ did not come to Earth that we may busily prepare for His welcome like Martha; rather, He came to commune with us—to eat breakfast in the morning, to let us touch His wounds, to let us rest in Him.
Understandably, we maintain a busy, hectic life mainly out of fear of loneliness. We work through the week and go out on the weekends because a part of us hates to be alone. We have conditioned ourselves to ignore God’s recurring question. “Why?” He asks. “Why do you so desperately avoid quietness and solitude? Why are you so afraid of Me?”
What God wants us to understand is that in silence is His word heard loudest; in frustration and confusion is His power mightiest; in drowning is His saving hand strongest. Of course, God is pleased with the words and actions we offer to Him and His glory. He is certainly overjoyed with a righteous, obedient life. But at His heart, He simply wants you. After all, He is our Father, and what father does not enjoy simply being with his child? Watching him smile, holding him when he is sad? We must break ourselves from considering what we lose by not getting things done or all figured out and consider what we gain from rest in Christ’s arms. We must consider being not only a people after God’s will but also a people after God’s own heart.
Tags: Spring 2009, Vol. 108 - Issue 5