When God gives us the gift of problems, pain, and suffering, everything seems to slow down until we learn the difficult, character-building lessons that accompany the pain. When we see our children going through difficult seasons of learning and when they choose pathways that we dislike, we’re so ready for them to redirect, learn the lessons, and get on with life. But when it comes to us, it seems like we’re surprised when we have to suffer, and we hope for Jesus’ return as soon as possible to end our pain.
Developing the gift of slowing down, growing awareness, and noticing can also come in strange packages.
My new pup, Camper, is already a pro-noticer. He stops for every sight, sound, smell, movement, breeze, person, car, animal, and person. I thought that I went for walks to enjoy my wife and to connect with people. My pup stops and notices everything and everyone. His radar picks up everything. In the process, I’m developing more frustration-tolerance, patience, and friendships. I’m beginning to slow down and to take in so many things that I’ve been missing for so long.
God’s ways of getting and keeping our attention and awareness are mysterious. We have no idea what He’s orchestrating next. All too often, the Lord uses processes that we would prefer to avoid in order to set us up for what He’s engineering. For instance, on Friday, my wife and I and Camper went to Indiana to celebrate our friend’s wedding. Camper got to romp n’ wrestle with our son and daughter-in-law’s two golden retrievers for about five hours while we were at the wedding. When 10:00 p.m. came, I had no interest in driving home in the dark. But in honor preferring my wife, I ventured out to drive back home. By 1:15 p.m., we safely arrived back home, and I was thankful for my familiar bed.
The next morning, Camper and I went to the farmer’s market for my third visit of the morning, and I found a long-lost friend who has lost his faith in Jesus. I knew that he was an animal-lover, so I caught him before he could leave the farmer’s market, plopped Camper into his arms, and invited him over. We went next door so that he could improvise on the keyboard with my music-loving, bridge-building father, and I’m guessing that music n’ milkshakes are going to become a weekly thing for them.
If I had just listened to my feelings and to my body instead of listening to my wife, I would have completely missed this bridge-building opportunity to seek and to save the lost as Jesus did around every corner of His life. While I frequently encourage people to listen to the message that their bodies are telling them and to listen carefully to what their feelings are communicating, it’s much more important to listen to what the Spirit of God is saying in the moments of our lives when we’re tired and when we’ve had enough. Oftentimes, it’s in the early or later hours of the day when God is speaking and setting us up for what’s next. If we have eyes that see and ears that hear, and if we’re not spent, distracted, or controlling each waking moment of our days, God will help us notice what’s most important around us instead of missing it over and over again.
When was the last time that your day got interrupted and you got irritated, but you pushed through because you weren’t going to get sidetracked? What happens when we begin to stop and to see the sights, hear the sounds, notice the animals, and stop to meet and connect with new people around us? What if we become “campers” who go from one place to the next looking to experience glimpses of God through His creation and through His people who are made in His divine image? We might become more like Jesus who came and pitched His tent among us. His close followers only move in response to Jesus’s words and nudges. Imagine all that we will experience this week if we slow down the pace of our lives to discover what the Lord wants us to experience. Perhaps we’ll become pro-noticers if we slow down and practice the presence of God wherever we are.
Did you find today’s blog more convicting or encouraging?
Was it hard to even slow down and to read this blog?
Which of your senses are well-developed tools that God is using to speak to you?
Which of your senses does God want to develop for His glory?
If God can teach us through a dog, how about through a cat?
