In the Quiet

I've noticed it's been pretty quiet around here since Celeste announced our 30 Day November Challenge.  So, I want to explain a little bit about why I want to do this and hopefully encourage you to join us.

Last week I was singing the song None But Jesus and it starts out, "In the quiet, in the stillness I know that you are God.  In the secret of your presence, I know there I am restored.  When you call I won't refuse; each new day again I'll choose.  There is no one else for me.  None but Jesus....."

I have sung that song a hundred times but that time was different.  Jesus put a challenge in my heart to spend time in the quiet.  He called me to live out the words I was singing.  How many times do we sing empty words to him?  I know for me, that happens all too often, but I digress.  I had remembered years ago reading a story that my favorite author, Brennan Manning wrote in one of his books.  The gist of it is that he was talking to a man that was depressed or struggling with his identity and challenged him to spend time alone with God every day.  He was supposed to hear from God about his identity etc.  He came back after a while and told Brennan that it didn't work.  Upon questioning the man, he discovered he had been sitting alone listening to classical music for a period of time each day.  Brennan said of course it didn't work, I didn't ask you to spend time with Mozart, I asked you to spend time alone.

There is hardly ever a minute of my day that I spend in total stillness and silence.  I always have music in the background or I am reading or on the phone/computer.  What about you?  Do you ever spend literal quiet time with yourself or God?  So he laid it on my heart to begin carving out 30 minutes each day in silence.  No worship music, no devotional reading; just me and my savior hanging out.  It will look different every day, I'm sure.  Some days I will just "be" or I will write to him, read my Bible or pray.  The other day I spent my time picking weeds and allowing God to speak to my heart through his creation.  It was pretty great.

We are asking everyone who reads this blog to accept our 30 Day November Challenge.  Pray and ask God what he would have you do with 3 goals; spiritual, food and exercise.  Commit to stick with them for the full 30 days in November and see what changes in your life.  We aren't looking for perfection here 'cause Lord knows I'm probably gonna mess up a day or two.  That's not the point, though.  The point is to get closer to God through discipline; to hear his voice.  After praying about which goals to set for the next month, here is what I have come up with:

Spiritual - spend 30 quiet minutes each day with my focus on Jesus
Food - eat only when I'm hungry
Exercise - run each day

I encourage you to listen to the song on this video and pray about what God would have you do.  If you feel led to do this November Challenge with us, leave a comment letting us know you'll be joining.  And if you're really brave, tell us your goals!

It's not about perfection, it's about the journey.

Monica