A Posture of Slowness
You will have to personally discover the truth that nothing else in this world will satisfy you as the Lord can.
Everybody seems to want things to be faster. I want things to be slower. I try to practice a posture of slowness in my everyday life. It's not because I'm getting old (perhaps it is). I try to practice slowness as a way to live in opposition to the world and in opposition to the fast-paced lifestyle that the world pushes on us. But the more important reason I practice slowness is to savor as many wonderful moments in my day as possible: enjoying a cup of coffee, writing a letter, being with my young son. Savoring the different moments in life can only be done if you're not in a hurry.
In particular, I've learned to slow down my times with the Lord. I've realized that meeting with God is something to be savored and delighted in. It's not something to be rushed or hurried. One of the reasons we rush is to “get it over with.” When it comes to my times with the Lord, I don’t want to just “get it over with.” I want to savor my time with Him. We're called to be patient when we meet with God. The first line of Psalm 37:7 (ESV) says, "Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him." There's no hurrying our time with the Lord. We are the ones who must wait patiently for Him and not the other way around.
Slowing down and savoring were challenging postures at first when I started to go deeper in my times with Jesus. When I started spending ample times with the Lord, I just wanted to rush through the process. I just wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. And I discovered that there are two reasons why I hurried my approach to prayer and meditation at the onset. The first was due to entertainment. I wanted to get my time with God over with so that I could engage in the forms of entertainment that I was accustomed to. This would have included watching television, playing video games, and browsing social media. It took me months to eventually discover that these forms of entertainment were not as satisfying as meeting with the Lord. Until I had personally discovered this truth, I would often rush through my prayer times in order to finally get to my entertainment choices. You will have to personally discover the truth that nothing else in this world will satisfy you as the Lord can.
The second and more potent reason why I hurried my approach to prayer was due to my lack of trust in God. I had a lot of things to do every day and I wanted to have the time to do them all. This would include work, chores, and errands. Spending so much time with God seemed like a hindrance to getting these things done. Sometimes, I would even get frustrated that I didn't have enough time in the day to get it all done. I've learned that if I truly want to spend ample and appropriate amounts of time with God, I would have to be comfortable with leaving some things unfinished and perhaps not getting around to some things at all. More so, I've had to learn to trust that God would take care of all the things that were left undone should I decide to slow down and savor my times with Him. I certainly don't want to neglect the important things in my life. But as I've honored the Lord in spending time with Him, I have discovered that He honors me in return with the time, motivation, and power to do all the other important things too.
So, I do spend quite a large amount of time each day meeting with God. But the large amount of time that I spend with Him is simply a natural result of me slowing down and savoring the daily encounters with Him.
Barnabas the Monastic
Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.
