I have a very low boredom quotient—things get slow or predictable, I get antsy and restless. I first noticed it in college. I didn’t want to miss anything: out with my girlfriend, come in and go back out with my buddies, and then stay up most of the night studying. I’m a lot the same way—no margins, on the edge of mayhem, the world flashing by as I grab bits of it, always looking for something new to attract my attention. As I’ve tried to come to terms with this problem, I’ve discovered this is the way God wired me. But I’ve also learned he wants me to slow down and slip away to be with him and rest!
As a boy I remember two events as if they were yesterday. Even though both were quite dangerous, and one injured me, they’re remembered as exciting. I had just gotten a new bike and was racing my buddies. I’ve always been a slow runner, but I could beat all my buddies on my bike. I was blowing them away when I came to a curve. I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted to be sitting in the grass waiting for them when they finished. So rather than slowing down, I pedaled faster as I entered the curve. I wasn’t wearing anything but shorts. When the bike slid out from under me, I peeled my hide from my feet to shoulder. I also put a pretty good cut in my scalp. I had a four and a half foot strawberry up my right side which required a whole tube of ointment twice a day.
As I grew older, I moved to go-carts. Once, after hitting a patch of gravel on a curve, I helicoptered out of control until I crashed into the rocks lining the roadway. I can still feel the thrill of those milliseconds being on the edge out of control and wondering where I would land.
As I have moved to adulthood, I like the same thrills, but crashes are much more disastrous. I’ve learned to slow down for the curves in life. In fact, I’ve learned to slow down before the curves, because when I go “slip sliding away” now, too many other people get hurt.
Several times in the busy-ness of ministry, Jesus would send the disciples away to rest. He would dismiss the crowds and close down the meetings. When he sees us today, I believe he wants to do the same thing. God rested on a sabbath and I believe he wants us to take a sabbath. Not so much as a high and holy day, but a day to slip away from the busy lives we lead, to rest and to think about him and his love for us. I believe he wants us to build into our days mini-sabbaths—twenty minute breaks to slip away for rest and reflection.
When we live all the time on the edge, we get so distracted by the motion that we often don’t make any progress. When we meet an unexpected curve, our life goes slip sliding away because we have never learned to break for the curves. We don’t know how to rely on God’s grace and guidance rather than our own manic sense of living on the edge. Through Jesus, our Heavenly Father invites us to slip away to rest with him so our lives won’t slip slide away into disaster.
At Heartlight Magazine, we try to provide some helpful materials to help you slip away to be with God. Please check out these three key resources for prayer and Bible study and the new music resources that we offer as well.
Prayer and Bible Study:
Music for Your Reflection:
- HeartSounds—Our new Christian music player for Alternative Rock, Contemporary Adult, and Acapella Worship
- Jukebox—catch some of the newest releases and pre-releases
