Tick, Tick...
Have you ever been in a room where, except for the ticking of clocks, it is silent?
I have.
And the most annoying thing is when there is more than one clock ticking, and they are not in synchrony. Both or all of them are ticking at their own constant rate, but not at the same time as the others.
I've been trying to make a discipline of giving God quiet time. I am working on sitting in silence and solitude: "being still and knowing that [he] is God". My heart and mind are so busy and get wrapped up in the events of each day and it is a struggle to sit and wait upon the Lord.
The other day as I tried this, I realized how easily my mind gets distracted if I don't have something to focus on. So in an effort to keep my mind from wandering, I chose to really listen to the ticking of my watch. So I sat in silence and focused on the constant, evenly-spaced "tick...tick...tick..."
A thought crossed my mind while doing so:
God is like a ticking clock. In a sense. I am being reminded in my Theology class that God doesn't change. His word says he is the same "yesterday, today, and forever". In James it says he does not change like shifting shadows. So God is the same. You could say he's...constant. But being constant doesn't make him predictable. His word also says in Isaiah 55 that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God is constant, but that only minimally helps us in understanding him. Because of his unchanging nature we know that anything he does will be done in love, justice, etc. But his thoughts and his ways are still so much higher than our own. We could say that he is like a clock--constantly ticking toward a purpose. But unlike a watch, we don't know his purpose. We know that as the clock hands move, 8:00 will turn into 8:01. We may not understand what God will turn our circumstances or our character into. But we can take heart, because we know he is always present, always moving.
What happens when our lives, our will, our purpose, our desires, our thoughts, our plans, our emotions, are not in line with his? What happens when our "ticking" doesn't correspond with his? I believe the problem in 1 Corinthians 13 comes into play: we are only a "resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." The sound is painful! That sound of two clocks ticking, out of sync, is annoying!
Part of my desire in consciously taking quiet time to spend with God is to order my heart around his. I want to synchronize the beating of my heart with his. I want our "ticking" to be in unison. It's like the lyrics I posted awhile ago: "I want to sit at your feet...lean up against you and breathe, and feel your heartbeat." I believe the point of Christianity, the point of growing in "Christ-likeness" is, may I suggest, to synchronize our heart beats with God's. As humans living in sin, our natural heartbeat is way off from his. But as we spend time with him, as we allow ourselves to be challenged and changed by his word, as we allow other believers to speak into our lives, as we pray and take time to listen, God's desires begin to become the desires of our hearts. Our heart breaks for what breaks his. Our heart rejoices in what makes his heart glad (the Bible says "hate evil; cling to what is good"). Our heart is filled with sorrow at what makes his heart angry. Our plans for our future become centered around his purposes for us.
When a person's heart is beating in unison with God's, it is evident. Others around us will not be annoyed or distracted by the various random ticking going on. Instead, they will hear only one tick. The tick of love. That sounds odd, like it should be in a book or song or something. But as already stated, without love we are that clanging cymbal. When we have that intimate relationship with God, we come to be as he is. And he is love. He's not just lovING. He doesn't just show love. He in very nature is the definition of love!
May our desire be to know him as Love. May our hearts become aligned with his. May we take the necessary steps and allow the Holy Spirit to mold us so that our tickings become synchronized. God doesn't change. He will keep ticking, even when our "batteries run out". He's running for a purpose. I want to join him in that.
I have.
And the most annoying thing is when there is more than one clock ticking, and they are not in synchrony. Both or all of them are ticking at their own constant rate, but not at the same time as the others.
I've been trying to make a discipline of giving God quiet time. I am working on sitting in silence and solitude: "being still and knowing that [he] is God". My heart and mind are so busy and get wrapped up in the events of each day and it is a struggle to sit and wait upon the Lord.
The other day as I tried this, I realized how easily my mind gets distracted if I don't have something to focus on. So in an effort to keep my mind from wandering, I chose to really listen to the ticking of my watch. So I sat in silence and focused on the constant, evenly-spaced "tick...tick...tick..."
A thought crossed my mind while doing so:
God is like a ticking clock. In a sense. I am being reminded in my Theology class that God doesn't change. His word says he is the same "yesterday, today, and forever". In James it says he does not change like shifting shadows. So God is the same. You could say he's...constant. But being constant doesn't make him predictable. His word also says in Isaiah 55 that "my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways...As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God is constant, but that only minimally helps us in understanding him. Because of his unchanging nature we know that anything he does will be done in love, justice, etc. But his thoughts and his ways are still so much higher than our own. We could say that he is like a clock--constantly ticking toward a purpose. But unlike a watch, we don't know his purpose. We know that as the clock hands move, 8:00 will turn into 8:01. We may not understand what God will turn our circumstances or our character into. But we can take heart, because we know he is always present, always moving.
What happens when our lives, our will, our purpose, our desires, our thoughts, our plans, our emotions, are not in line with his? What happens when our "ticking" doesn't correspond with his? I believe the problem in 1 Corinthians 13 comes into play: we are only a "resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." The sound is painful! That sound of two clocks ticking, out of sync, is annoying!
Part of my desire in consciously taking quiet time to spend with God is to order my heart around his. I want to synchronize the beating of my heart with his. I want our "ticking" to be in unison. It's like the lyrics I posted awhile ago: "I want to sit at your feet...lean up against you and breathe, and feel your heartbeat." I believe the point of Christianity, the point of growing in "Christ-likeness" is, may I suggest, to synchronize our heart beats with God's. As humans living in sin, our natural heartbeat is way off from his. But as we spend time with him, as we allow ourselves to be challenged and changed by his word, as we allow other believers to speak into our lives, as we pray and take time to listen, God's desires begin to become the desires of our hearts. Our heart breaks for what breaks his. Our heart rejoices in what makes his heart glad (the Bible says "hate evil; cling to what is good"). Our heart is filled with sorrow at what makes his heart angry. Our plans for our future become centered around his purposes for us.
When a person's heart is beating in unison with God's, it is evident. Others around us will not be annoyed or distracted by the various random ticking going on. Instead, they will hear only one tick. The tick of love. That sounds odd, like it should be in a book or song or something. But as already stated, without love we are that clanging cymbal. When we have that intimate relationship with God, we come to be as he is. And he is love. He's not just lovING. He doesn't just show love. He in very nature is the definition of love!
May our desire be to know him as Love. May our hearts become aligned with his. May we take the necessary steps and allow the Holy Spirit to mold us so that our tickings become synchronized. God doesn't change. He will keep ticking, even when our "batteries run out". He's running for a purpose. I want to join him in that.