It’s 5:30am again. By now, four years into motherhood, I thought I would have adjusted to this alarm clock. I am thrust into reality instantly, and it’s stunts me every dawn. I rush into my day, despite my desperation to rise earlier than my sleeping babes and get moving, or get in the Word; anything but roll over and sleep some more. But my body, my soul, my mind longs deeply for more sleep more often… some mornings my good intentions are left lost in my dreams.
Quiet times look different in each season of life though right? Newly married, new house, new church, new job, new schedule, new schools, new regime, new health kick, new babies… We slowly learn to find a new way as life is always bringing us into new seasons with new opportunities to glean from it.
I keep hearing this whisper, this calling to come into His presence, but I shoo it away. I yearn to be there, in the secret place. Often. More often than I care to admit. This craving is persistent, and relentless. But I cannot for the life of me. Find. The. Time.
Like tonight I was ready, completely settled in to watch more TV but the tugging on my heart would not give way, “Come sweet one, just sit a while, come, make more room” … so under the dim of a fairy lit deck accompanied by a million thoughts and a green tea, I realise I haven’t made much room for time with Him lately. I haven’t intentionally carved space for His Word to settle into the nooks and crannies of my heart, or to just sit and listen to what He wants to say. It’s no wonder I find it difficult to go to sleep most nights, especially in those busy days and seasons, where I forget time and my thoughts are left caged. It’s this perpetual going forcing my focus else where. It’s in those moments where the babes are asleep in the car and I take the long, long, long way home or I decide to settle into bed having switched off life to write in my journal… it’s in the decluttering of going I’m caught sifting and filing and chatting and listening before the Lord and finding space in being… and it is deliciously liberating.
It is when I begin to hear Him clearly.
It is when I feel like I have found home.
And here it is, the stumbling across scripture that pierces your heart enough to make you want to change…
Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.
Colossians 3:15-17.
Cultivate Thankfulness. Oh man. Boom, there it is again. The week that’s given into doubt and fear, the words that cut, the song I wish I’d had time to write – all those moments have a flip side. It’s easy to find ways to complain, or shift gratitude to attitude. There’s never nothing to be grateful for, we simply just have to find it, and when we do we are enslaved to a reformed way of thinking. A way of life that demonstrates grace, love, encouragement as we navigate those not so great seasons or days.
And as for letting the Word have run of our house. How I want to live worship out in my life every day, not just Sunday. How I want to be an example of this to my kids, my team, my people… I know I could make more room, we all can. I’ve given worship some room in our lives, but not plenty. I’m so incredibly aware I need to bookend my days better. I’ve got to make a way to spend time in His Word, meditating on it day and night, finding a way to stop and listen to the pulling, the calling, the whispers and just get away with Him.
When we create space in our busy lives to spend time in His Word, in worship and conversation with Him, we create opportunity to discover some of the most precious things Holy Spirit can reveal to us. When we clear out the junk, we give way to what He wants to say (not people, or circumstances). When we follow that still small voice calling to come away with Him we find true rest; we find home.
Sweet one, what is stopping you from making room in your day to day to get away with Him? How can you make more room in your life for His voice today? What are you grateful for? Let’s be the kind of worshippers the Father seeks, children who know His voice and can find His presence because we made plenty of room for Him in our ordinary moments every day.
Until next time…
xox