You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11 NIV)
This has become one of my favorite verses. I so desperately want to know the path of life and experience the Father’s joy and presence. However, sometimes the path of my life becomes dark and cloudy. I have cried out to God, “Whatever you’re doing feels hard and lonely.Can you give me some clues about what’s going on?” I once joked out loud, “How come God never speaks to me through a burning bush?” Think about it. Scattered throughout the Bible you see phrases like, “the angel of the LORD said,” or, “the LORD said unto . . .” Doesn’t it seem to you that God spoke so clearly back in the Bible times and the person He was speaking to heard Him without any problems? (I will pause right here to say that hearing Him and obeying Him are two completely different things. Just ask Jonah.)
The truth is God speaks to us in a variety of ways, but we usually have so much going on around us that His voice gets drowned out by the noise. There is information assaulting our senses from every angle. Televisions, computers, tablets, smart phones – our lives are filled with constant ringing, dinging, honking, and blaring. When was the last time you just turned every device off and sat in the quietness? You should try it sometime. No reruns of House on TV. No checking Facebook every five minutes to see if someone “liked” your clever status update. No opening your email to see the Designer Shoe Warehouse current sale ad (Oh, man! Talk about hitting where it hurts).
Silence is scary. But it’s in this silence that we can start facing what’s really going on inside us. The insecurity, the fear of failure, the turmoil. Amid all that comes the true cry of our hearts, “Father, I want to know who you are and who you made me to be!” I know shutting down the noise can be difficult; we all have a lot going on and sometimes we let those things take control of our lives. But if we stop and purpose in our hearts that we will sit quietly in Father’s presence, oh the things we would learn.
I believe being quiet before God doesn’t always mean the absence of noise. I think it’s about turning our spirits toward Father in spite of demanding bosses, yelling spouses, or screaming kids. We can choose what (or who) we listen to and what we think about. Philippians 4:8 says:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
You could have a chaos stirring all around you like a jackhammer, yet still be quietly meditating before God and listening for His voice.
One of the things that helps me tremendously is finding music that I can use to say what’s really in my heart. During one of the darkest periods of my life I cried out to God, “I don’t understand what’s happening! I thought I was following your will, but this can’t be what obeying you is supposed to feel like!” My dear sister, Shannon, texted me and asked if I had ever heard the song “Whatever You’re Doing” by Sanctus Real. When I listened to it I was blown away. It was exactly what I was crying out to God about. It not only voiced the anguish that I was feeling, but it also gave me hope that God was in control and my job was just to surrender. Every time I listen to this song, I use it as a prayer. The lyrics read, in part:
It’s time for healing, time to move on
It’s time to fix what’s been broken too long
Time make right what has been wrong
It’s time to find my way to where I belong
There’s a wave that’s crashing over me
All I can do is surrender
It feels like chaos but somehow there’s peace
And it’s hard to surrender to what I can’t see
But I’m giving in to something heavenly. . .
Look, I know life in the 21st century can be challenging; we’re conditioned to be plugged in and connected to something 24/7. If we truly want God to make the path of life known to us, I think it’s time to unplug and pray, “Father, there’s noise all around me, but I’m choosing to quiet my soul and listen for your voice. Whatever you’re doing feels like chaos, but I’m giving in to something heavenly.”
To watch the video of Sanctus Real’s Whatever You’re Doing