Embrace the stillness
Quiet! Being a bit of a late adopter of most things technical it was only three or four weeks ago that I downloaded the app enabling me to pay for parking from my smart phone. It’s got a few drawbacks but all in all it’s a pretty convenient tool.
Early this week I was downtown with my wife for coffee. As we parked she said, “Do you have change for the meter?”
I said smugly, “Don’t need any, I’ve got the App.” I entered the number of the meter, entered the correct vehicle and then just as I hit the “pay button” I said to her, “The only problem with the app is that I haven’t figured out yet how to enter less than a full hour and I don’t think we’ll be that long.”
“Actually,” she said, as she stood on the sidewalk looking at the meter “there is one other problem.” “What?” I asked in surprise. She said, “The meter already has more than an hour left on it from the last guy. If you had looked you wouldn’t have had to pay at all.”
Bonus for the City of Kelowna! Here I was proudly paying for a parking meter that was already loaded.
The real issue in the above scenario was not the buck and a quarter it cost me. The real issue is that I never looked. I missed something that was staring me in the face.
The whole experience makes me wonder, “What else might I be missing that could be a lot more important than an hour of parking?”
The ancient writer of Psalm 46 shared a piece of advice that I suggest is one of the most insightful comments in all Holy Scripture. Writing on behalf of God he says to his readers, “Be still and know that I am God.” Why do I give that simple statement such high praise, saying it’s one of the most insightful comments of all? Because it suggests that God rarely shouts or draws attention to Himself. It suggests that if you allow yourself to be distracted by all kinds of busyness, activity or ambient noise you might very well miss Him. This is not a parking meter we’re talking about, it’s God.
Summer provides most people with more discretionary time than the rest of the year affords them. There are moments in nature; moments around a campfire; moments beside a creek, river or lake. There are vacation moments where one is much more prone to sit quietly on the deck in the early morning savoring a cup of coffee without the pressure to rush off to work.
My point is that if you embrace the stillness, you might find yourself in a posture where you connect more fully with God than you typically do in the rush of hectic living.
As we head into July and August I have one piece of pastoral advice. Take some time to be still. You just might discover what you’ve been missing throughout the year.
Tim Schroeder is pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in Kelowna. This column appears Saturdays.