Hearing Impaired

We need to quit whatever we're doing and sit down. When we sit down, the dust raised by our furious activity settles; the noise generated by our building operations goes quiet; we become aware of the real world. God’s world. And what we see leaves us breathless: it’s so much larger, so much more full of energy and action than our ego-fueled actions, so much clearer and saner than the plans that we had projected. – Eugene Peterson in Leap Over a Wall, Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians

I once knew a man who, as far as I know, rarely hurried. He was quite deliberate in all he did. He has since died. In the eyes of our culture, his life wouldn’t be particularly impressive. He didn’t amass a fortune, invent anything, write any books, wasn’t famous- not even for 15 minutes.

It’s interesting to note that to everyone who knew him, his nick name was ‘Happy’.

It may well be that his unruffled approach to life was his natural bent. Those of us who don’t have that advantage have to ‘work’ at slowing down and occasionally stopping. (It just occurred to me that seeing slowing down as a ‘project’ initially may help us to get it done, especially if there’s a deadline.)

The fact is that most of us are clueless about how fast we’re going until some external force stops us. Pastor John Ortberg, when questioned by the police officer if he was aware what the speed limit was on the road where he’d been stopped, quipped something like, “Goodness no. That sign whizzed by WAY too fast for me to read it.”

Bingo.

If Moses had checked the sheep zipping around on a four-wheeler it’s possible the term ‘burning bush’ would have no significance to us now.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning said:
Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush aflame with God.
But only those who see take off their shoes.
The rest sit around and pluck blackberries.

There is a price to pay for consistently exceeding the speed limit of life, besides the physical ailments that come from adrenalin addiction.

Running without pause from one building project to another- whether it’s shameless wealth accumulation or meritorious good works- robs one of the wealth and rewards of regularly letting the dust settle, rereading God’s love letters and listening. Not to mention, it's impossible to take your shoes off while running.

As it turns out, the recommended speed limit for hearing from God is zero.