Do you ever get overwhelmed with electronic stuff? If I get five emails in an hour, it feels no different to me than if five people came to my door at once. I am not psychologically built to just overlook emails, especially if they are personal and asking for help of some kind. I have learned as a stop gap measure to just shoot back a note letting them know I got their message and will respond ASAP. So I don’t let stuff like that kill me, but it itches really bad.
But worse than that, are the countless items on YouTube people want me to see. (I am not on Face Book or any other form of social media because I can’t endure them.) Bugs Bunny or Ravi? Dallas Willard or Daffy Duck? My current favorite thing to escape with is watching clips of young black kids as they hear the Righteous Brothers singing Unchained Melody for the first time, and seeing them squeal with shocked delight that a white boy can sing like that! I get easily focused on all of it, which pushes me into overload – way too much to digest!
And here I am adding to the list of electronic stuff! I have promised myself not to give vent to the many items of current conflict no matter how strongly I feel about them. Why do you need my opinion on this or that, when you can read a boatload of other opinions? So, what good is this to you now, here, this moment?
I want to offer you something with Life in it! Something that will help you to truly live! Do you need a hiding place from the electronic overload, including the international, or national, or personal storm you are so tired of enduring? Do you feel alone? Have you forgotten what you even need on the inside? Do you sometimes get so overwhelmed with the daily atmosphere that if a gentle moment might happen to come your way, you can’t see or feel it? Then it slips by you, leaving a vague afterglow as it evaporates? Yeah, me too.
Take a few moments with me. Today was…what? Hard? Discouraging? Frantic? Exhausting? Sad? Maybe it still is. And the only thing you can feel is numb. Be still, just for a few moments. Stop. Take a deep breath. Just let all the pressure you feel have a chance to decrease for a few moments. I know you may be tempted to feel like you are killing time right now, sitting here reading the screen like you are doing now. But that is a lie of the enemy. Now, in this moment, you are making time your friend. I do not offer that which kills, but that which LIVES.
This is an impersonal electronic device. These marks are cold, pixel dots on a mindless heartless screen. But Someone is waiting for you to turn aside and give your focused attention to Him. He will come to you now, even through this dead instrument, if you will heed His gentle whisper, “Come away, my beloved, come be with Me for a while.” All it takes is for you to will to, to choose to, STOP. Ask Him. And then be still and quiet for a few moments. Breathe. You may even feel a bit.
Frantic worrying, angry outbursts, stressed depression, or even harmless diversions never really help. It won’t change anything for the good. But this…this will, if you just stop and listen. You will be helped. You will be strengthened. You will feel again. And Love will call your name. And then you can go back and face whatever you need to face, but refreshed, replenished… because you have been touched by Life Himself. You are truly seen, and really understood, and deeply loved. Welcome and be welcomed into the Real Presence. He is your Hiding Place.