“Once we get through ______, life will calm down, and I can get things under control again.” Sound familiar? I feel like we live our lives repeating a variation of this phrase again and again. When we get through the Christmas season, everything will calm down in the new year. When this semester ends, I can breathe again. Once the kids get back into school, things will go back to normal.
We perpetually think that this season is the absolute busiest, but it will end soon and all can go back to normal. What is normal? It almost seems like those busy seasons are normal, even though we are continuously thinking that if we just push through the current burst of busyness, we will come out on the other side. When life feels out of our control and speeding by at a frantic pace, how does our faith life feel?
Probably quite similar: hurried, noisy, or having one more thing to check off our to-do list each day. Our current church season of Lent is certainly no exception: there are additional services to attend, new practices to try to take on, and the all-important self-reflection and introspection inherent to the season. We are encouraged to look within, reflect on our lives and habits and actions, to repent, and to strive for closeness to Christ throughout this especially holy time.
How do we do that? How do we withdraw from the noise and distractions, and draw nearer to Him? In Psalm 119:15, the psalmist writes, “I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways.” We can fill our minds with God’s word. We can read a daily devotional and the scripture that goes with it. When we do that early in the morning, it is planted in our minds, and throughout the day, we can reflect on it. I especially like the concept of fixing our eyes on God’s ways. There are a million things pulling at us daily, distracting us from our worship and our prayer life and our faith life.
When our eyes are fixed, we are keeping God’s word and ways at the forefront. We keep meditating on those ways and words, and we keep our eyes fixed so that even while we are dealing with the swirling world of demands surrounding us, God is at the heart of our lives. We also see so many scriptural examples of Jesus sneaking away to get time alone in prayer. No matter how busy He was and how many responsibilities He had, He made it a priority to take quiet time away and to spend time with God. This is easier said than done of course.
However, it is an example to which we can aspire. Likely, life will not calm down anytime soon. There will always be plenty of demands on our time, things pulling at our attention and giving us that feeling of living life at a frantic pace. Nevertheless, we have the opportunity to draw near to God anytime; we have the opportunity to fix our eyes on God and to refix them when they get diverted.
We are works in progress, and God values our efforts. This season, when you start to feel overwhelmed with distractions, follow the example of Jesus; prioritize God above all else and fix your eyes upon Him.
Rev. Dr. David Dubovich