I spent a major portion of my professional career in the consulting field traveling, flying out Sunday evenings and returning late Thursday or Friday evenings. Many times I got caught up in the hustle of getting packed, making sure I had all of my business items pulled together, as well as making sure things were secure and covered at home before heading to the airport.
On one particular Sunday I was running late and needed to make sure my daughter had something to eat before I left. I decided to run to a local fast food joint to pick up a quick meal for her before I took off to catch my flight.
I gave my order to the drive-thru squawk box and as I was driving to the pick up window received a call from a colleague I would be working with on the trip. As I was talking to him, I pulled up to the window, paid the attendant, rolled up my window on my car and headed home. Still on the phone when I arrived home, I headed into the house to say good bye and pick up my luggage. As I walked to my bedroom, I heard my daughter say, “Dad, where is my food?” I stood there a bit dumb-struck because I realized I had pulled through the drive-thru, paid for the food and had driven off leaving the meal behind. Can’t you just hear the comments that went on inside with that staff?
That was a little embarrassing driving back to pick up the food fifteen minutes later. Even more so, it happened to me two more times in that same year! I’m sure long after I’m gone this will be one of those stories that will be told over and over again to my grandchildren.
The lesson for me was that sometimes we allow ourselves to become so distracted with external things we sometimes lose site of where we are in the moment to the point of losing site of what is really important and needs our attention at the time.
I’ve often wondered what things I may have missed in life by allowing myself to be distracted from the moment. It’s like being in a car on a winding road in the Rockies where you focus so intently on staying on the road you miss the scenery. Seriously, you could drive through the whole state of Colorado and never actually see Colorado if you were that focused on the road in front of you all the time…..You missed seeing and hearing what is around you. Not to say that we can’t let our minds wonder. The point for me is that I all too often allow myself to live in that distracted mode. Either thinking about the past where I can’t change what happened or focusing more on the future which hasn’t happened yet vs. allowing myself to be in the moment where I can live in reality and experience life and make decisions that will impact a lifetime. The older I get the more I realize the importance of just being still. (No, not because I’m older but because I realize the value of being still.)
“Be Still” Passages:
Exodus 14:14- Comment: tough challenges and how they often cause us to focus on a future we can’t be sure of having. Being still and remaining in the moment allows us to trust God to fight with and for us.
Psalms 37:7 – Comment: this passage discusses situations involving the way others treat us often can keep us from being in the moment. Again being still and remaining in the moment will allow God to do his part verses us getting in the way trying to create an outcome we would hope to achieve
Psalms 46:16 – Comment: being still keeps us in the moment, helps us to see God where we are……
Nice stuff Randy!
It’s hard to be a Mary, in a Martha’s world. I definitely struggle w/being still.
Thanks for your comments Em. I like that Mary in a Martha world comment. Really appropriate for this post for sure.
Hey Randy,
Great writing, God may have something new for you in the future. Along with the be still passages, we have to listen for God because he may be speaking to us in a whisper.
Keep writing.
Isaiah 29:4 (New International Version, ©2011)
4 Brought low, you will speak from the ground;
your speech will mumble out of the dust.
Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth;
out of the dust your speech will whisper.
Matthew 10:27 (New International Version, ©2011)
27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.
Great point Tracy. Part of being still definitely involves listening. We can be still yet still allow our minds to run 100 miles an hours at the same time….Thanks for sharing.