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July 28, 2005 The past couple of days I have been quiet. I have been watching and I have been quiet. Only one person has been pestering my mailbox, so it has been easy to remain content in what I have been eyewitness to and satisfied in my faith. When you stop to listen you hear birds singing. The yells of children down alleyways; the crying of a baby needing a bottle or a changed diaper and the noisy exhaust from passing traffic are welcomed sounds, because usually you are too busy, or lost in thought to notice or even remember such sounds. Jet aircraft pass overhead every day, but only when you stop to listen do you actually hear the whisper of the distant engines. I live only a few hundred yards from a busy seashore. The waves are constant and there is continual fishing boat and Jet Ski activity. I never hear it unless I actually focus on it. It would make one wonder for sure that if a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to listen, is there any sound? The sounds are always there. I am just not always paying attention. It is the quiet soul that hears the sounds of life. The soul that is too busy, bypasses many important opportunities to actually find contentment. There may be many who are never content unless they are active, yet in much of that activity there is blindness to others that are trying to gain one’s attention. There are life admonishments to stop and take some time to “smell the roses” or the coffee. Stress is said to be an early road to heart attack and stroke. There are still too many people in such hurry that there is not enough time to fasten a safety belt on the children piled in the back seat. Fast food, fast cars, express checkout lines, ATM’s; all geared to let one in and out in a hurry. To where? I have found that the physical life needs a balance. There are times to hurry, but those times should never be “all the time”. There must be time to be quiet. There must be time to sit, take personal inventory, and set direction and goal. That is not as easy as it may seem. The only real edge a Christian has is his faith. With that secured, he can carry on with life in contentment that the most important aspect of his existence is a sealed deal. Jesus tells the Christian to “take no thought for tomorrow”. He was not discussing the future of the individual however. The one In Christ never needs to worry about his eternal existence. He can function in all other avenues of life, secure and content that no matter what may happen in the rest of the world, the Lord will be faithful to his promises. I sometimes envy those who take God at the most extreme. First, I should never envy. Second, I need never worry about the missionaries who work in the world’s areas where Christians are rarely welcome and many times forcibly rejected and sometimes killed. It is the Christian who concerns himself with death that doesn’t work to his full potential. There are risks in all lines of work and personal endeavor. There is rejection and scorn in just about every avenue of Christian work. Fear will many times quiet testimony. This is why it is important for a Christian to stop every once in a while and take stock of self. Do you fear anything or anyone? Why? In your standing with the Living God, what is so awful in the world that you fear more than you fear disappointing God? No. I stop and remind myself there is no one and nothing to fear; ever. Romans Chapter 8 is a banner of comfort. I can hear the birds and the sounds of the sea. When I stop, and I really listen; I will hear the voice of the Spirit speaking from the Word of God. That is the part of life’s balance a Christian should not ignore. ------------ Email Skip: skiptoomaloo@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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