Living without

The Psalmist writes in Psalms 46:1, "Be still and know that I am God."

That's hard. Be still - and then know God.

To know God is to be still. To be quiet. To realize that intimacy with God comes from the quiet places of our lives.

Our lives are filled with so much static. I find it hard to sit without some kind of noise, how about you?

I can remember being the desert in southwest New Mexico, with nothing but the sun and the landscape. The silence was deafening. Almost unsettling.

Yet, it's in this kind of setting that our relationship with God thrives.

I would suggest that God continually finds ways to communicate with those who truly seek him, especially when we lower the volume of the surrounding static.

There's the story of a spiritual seeker who interrupted a busy life to spend a few days in a monastery.

"'I hope your stay is a blessed one,' said the monk who showed the visitor to his cell. 'If you need anything, let us know, and we'll teach you how to live without it.'"

You see, to truly know God, it's not a matter of what I am willing to live with, it's a matter of what I am willing to live without.

Paul writes to in Titus 2:11,12, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age"