Day 28: Does life come with a mute button?

I don't get too much silence. In any given day there are countless grabs for my attention. A whining baby who wants to be held. A jealous big brother who also wants to be held. Phone calls. Emails. Text messages. Calendar reminders.

When I go into meetings I am able to silence my phone. I simply ignore the demands of the world to pay attention to the person I am meeting with. I wish I were allowed to do that with life. Just press the "silent" button and ignore everything that competes for my attention. It is not the season in life for me to do that. Those demands are real and they are my duty to respond to. However, God deserves focused attentive time and I try to carve out spaces in my week where I can silence my life. Put it on hold and try to listen to God.

But God is slow and quiet. God doesn't fit into the 15 minute structured block of God time. So in that still silence that I fight to create I don't hear God. I don't hear anything. My mind is jumbled. But just because I don't always hear God in that special moment I've created, doesn't mean that I shouldn't do it. The pause in life allows me to reflect. To try on new perspectives. To ask God questions. It creates in me a space and ability to hear God amist the chaos and noise that accompanies most of my day.