Solitude and listening to God

Jack Hayford has written, "beware of the barrenness of a busy life."

We are all busy.

Many times in our busy lives, God is calling us to solitude.

We can be so busy that we forget about God. Most people don't hate God - they just forget about Him.

I love this story that John Ortberg tells:

Some time ago, a newspaper in Tacoma, Washington, carried the story of Tattoo, the basset hound. Tattoo didn't intend to go for an evening run, but when his owner shut his leash in the car door and took off with Tattoo still outside the vehicle, he had no choice.

A motorcycle officer named Terry Filbert noticed a passing vehicle with something that appeared to be dragging behind it. As he passed the vehicle, he saw the object was a basset hound on a leash.

"He was picking them up and putting them down as fast as he could," said Filbert. He chased the car to a stop, and Tattoo was rescued, but not before the dog reached a speed of twenty to twenty-five miles per hour, and rolled over several times.

(The dog was fine but asked not to go out for an evening walk for a long time.)

There are too many of us whose days are marked by "picking them up and putting them down as fast as we can." We must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives.

One word of caution.

Some people think that spending "alone time" with God means getting somewhere with a bunch of sermon tapes and books and magazines and DVDs. Might I suggest that you get alone with God and your Bible?

And even at that, with His Word at your side, that you spend some time simply listening to Him? That can be a hard spiritual discipline to learn.

But God is faithful. And from experince, He will speak. The question is not, "Does God speak," but "are we listening?"

May we all become better listeners.