Quiet

I’ll be honest with you, I don’t do very well with quiet.  I constantly need to have noise going on around me in order to keep focus.  I know that sounds strange, but it’s the truth.  The more that I have going on around me, the better I’ve always been at focusing on the task at hand.  I almost always have music or a TV show going when I’m working at home, and music or talk radio on at work in order to keep myself going.  If I don’t have that going I can easily lose focus, or even fall asleep.

I don’t know exactly why I’m wired this way, but as far as I can trace it back is to my days playing sports.  You are told by your coaches to tune out everything else and focus on your job.  An athlete is told from an early age to focus on their teammates, the other team, and the coach.  They are to block out everything else.  I think that in order for me to do anything now I’m doing the same thing.

So, how does this issue relate to my Christian walk?  First off, I can’t just sit and read a devotional or the Bible.  I do better when I have music blaring from the speakers which I’m almost completely ignoring.  Instead I’m focused on the book that I’m reading.  I also find myself more focused on God than ever in my life when there is a lot going on in my life.  I tend to make sure there is time for Him, even if it may not seem like it to the rest of the world.

My point this week is that we all have different ways of gaining the focus we want to have on God.  If one method doesn’t work for you, then try something else.  Mine is to have things try to steal my attention, which then keeps me focused.  Maybe for you it’s being in complete silence.  Maybe it’s something in between.  It doesn’t matter how you get focused on God, what matters is that you do find a way.  So look for the method that works best for you.  God bless!