Be the Peace of God

Wow! The instant media world we live in brings an intensity and even a trauma level to our lives. The sensational sells. The grotesque is trumpeted. Everything is screamed at a high pitch.

We don’t have to live that way. Two of the spiritual disciplines that are seldom even mentioned anymore are solitude and silence. How many people have told me I need time away from my cell phone? The medical world tells us that continuous exposure to electronic gadgets may be harmful to our health.

Silence. When does it ever happen in our world? We are too attached to our electronic stuff. Solitude. Purposeful time alone with God, meditating on and listening for God’s voice. We all need at least a few minutes of solitude every day. We also need some longer resets where we walk away for a day or even longer.

I believe that the spiritual condition of the country will continue to be more and more hyperbole of both the left and right until we learn to step back and breathe. We need to shut everything off. Find a place of silence. Open our Bibles. Then read occasionally. Maybe journal some thoughts. Observe what is happening at the heart level. Listen for God’s voice.

The Christianity that I see practiced is more and more electronic. Our Bibles are on our phones. Worship is completely equated with music we can play with a gadget. Silence. Solitude. Reset.

Right now, the greatest gift that Christians can give to our nation is peace. We are not going to receive the kind of peace that is needed unless we learn how to disconnect. There is too much of a frantic pace. Even our Christianity is tainted by the high level pressing. We can’t give away what we don’t have. We won’t have the needed peace until we practice pulling away into a quiet place. Alone. With God.

God is calling His people to be a place of faith amidst the hysteria and hype. Unfortunately, too much of our faith has been screaming to try to be heard. I pray that true believers will see the need to step back, connect with God, and then be peace and joy and faith. In my mind, it is like a single dot of a calm in the midst of a turbulent swirl of activity.

If we can be that peace, we will be an effective force in our nation. If we continue to scream, we will simply be one more voice that gets drowned out by so many other sounds. Are you practicing silence and solitude before Christ? Do you have daily times where you cut the electronic umbilical cord?

Be the peace of God for a world in need of peace.