Be QUIET!

There is a Starbucks coffee shop on the boardwalk in Kemah, TX.  If you’ve been there, you can picture it resting in the shadow of the mighty roller coaster.  When there, I loved being the first one to grab my early morning Joe and take a slow – very slow – walk around the pier and pathways that encompassed the amusement rides.  Sometimes, I’d meet my friend Sam Brown but mostly I would notice the rides.  That early, they were quiet.  No roar of the steel tracked kiddie cars.  No hum of the carousel.  No churning of the “Vominator” as I call it.  Simply the few workers who were testing, cleaning and inspecting every hinge that would keep the riders safe.

Solitude is not a luxury but a necessity.  God set up the cosmos for the ebb and flow of activity and quiet.  Yet, we fight against the value of being still.  We wield the sword of our schedules against the rejuvenating, calming and refreshing time of inspecting and fine-tuning our lives.

Why is that?

This morning, as is my custom, I woke up before my household, keuriged my coffee and spent time in prayer, calm and thought.  I am ready for the riders of my day.  I am set for the bustle of the crowds of my schedule.  And all it takes is a few extra moments in the quiet of His presence.

Peace,

My new website:

Owl

“I’m an owl!” she said as my wife scooped and dumped the pre-wrapped candy into her plastic dollar store jack-o-lantern.  She was the cutest one that came to our door last Halloween.  No witches nose, no ghost sheet, no ten inch plastic knife.  Just simple fabric feathers cut out in multiply shapes and colors and lovingly stitched onto a felt jacket.

Why do we make life so gory and complex?  Why do our minds wander to things of the dark and justify it and cute.  Why is it that our thought patterns weave together evil and negativity as a first response to the beauty that is in this world?  Sin … sure.  But our culture thrives on making life complex.  We live for the thrill of the “next thing” which results in a life more chaotic that what God intended.

Today, I will strive to be still.  I will spread wide my appointments and walk slower.  “Who” knows .. Maybe, today, I’ll just be an owl.

Peace,