slow it down

why do we rush? why do we run head long into something without stopping and pondering more often? i see so many people, myself being one of them, just rush into doing something without thinking about what is really involved. and then, when we get in and we start getting overwhelmed we freak out like we don't understand why all this is happening. this boggles my mind.

i think of prayer. how often do we lie down at night and start rattling off this list of things, just filling time and space with our words? i have so often found myself doing this and i have to stop myself. iv had to go to lengths before where i tell myself to stop talking out loud. why do we do this? is it an effort to avoid awkward silence? do we think God doesn't hear us if we don't say it a certain way or loud enough? my eyes feel upon a verse again the other day, one that in the last few years has been one of comfort to me. in Ecclesiastes 5 i hear God telling me to be silent, to slow down and listen.

"2Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few."

see, i think we have this idea that prayer is just rambling off this list of wishes and wants, begging God to grant them to us. point blank, that is a joke. prayer is more than telling God what we want. prayer is about relationship, one with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. it is personal, and it is two-way, not one. when we pray we must listen for God to answer. we need to slow down, maybe even shut-up for once, and just listen. as the Scripture says, "...let your words be few."

but this is just one aspect of many in relation to prayer. and what about the issue that spurned me into this? the fact that today's world is one of busyness. if you are not busy, there is something wrong with you. you cant slow down or stop what you are doing, and if you can find something to do!

this is what the world screams at us, and i am sick of it. i am sick of watching people rush into things they do not understand and than getting into a hole so deep they cant get back out, and if they can they become so depressed no pill can ever cure them.

stop.

just stop for once. take a walk. go for a hike. get out of town for a weekend. sleep in, lounge around the house. take a day off work or school. spend time in the Word, spend some time with the Father.

take a breath, let your words be few.