I once gave an assignment to a congregation – Go home and try to get quiet before God for 10 minutes. Find Him in the silence. Stop the noise of your mind working on the shopping list. Stop the thoughts of what’s for dinner. Stop the noise of the radio in the background. And, if you have to, turn off the computer and stop the hum that drones on and on. Have you ever tried to do that? Just get quiet before God? While it sounds like an easy assignment, when you actually try to do it, you discover just how hard it is to get quiet.

We live in a noise filled world. Whether it’s the hum of appliances, the sound of a TV, music from a sound system, or just random traffic noise, it’s hard to get totally quiet before God. Toss on top of the noise just listed, there’s the noise of competing opinions, the noise of politics, the noise of sports, and even the noise of life. But, to truly discover who we are, we must dare to get quiet so we can hear who we’re not.

We find ourselves at the beginning of another Lenten season. This is a season to reflect on the sacrifice of the Cross. In less than 40 days now it will be Easter time. Easter comes early this year, and I do believe many will forget about it, simply because the noise of the world will take our minds off the fact that Easter is in March.

How are you spending your time in preparation for reflection on the ultimate sacrifice known to humans. The sacrifice of another, giving up His life, so that we might have life.

A Fellow Sojourner,
Dr. Rus