Chuck Bridges Blog

I have a confession to make: I am old enough to remember 8-Track tape players. OK, I had one! Now you know. I also remember when I got my first Cassette (is that how you spell it?) player. If you don’t know what that is you are young! As I admired my collection of Cass. Tapes, the world started putting music on tiny albums called CDs. WOW. Now I had to switch again.

When I purchased my first CD player I was very anxious to get home and put a CD in it to hear this studio quality sound that everyone was talking about. So, there I was looking at this box wondering how to operate this newest and greatest in the technology revolution. Honestly, I didn’t even know how to make the “hatch” pop open to put the CD in. I looked everywhere for the button. Then, I read the directions. You just pushed on the lid and it popped open. WOW. That was cool. I opened it…well, several times!

Now I was ready to play my CD. So I put it in then closed the hatch (sounds like a space ship-that was for you Chris). Then I just stared at these buttons with symbols on them trying to decipher Sony’s Secret Codes. On my 8 track and Cassette players the play button said PLAY! So, again I had to read the directions. One of the buttons looked like this: I mean, it’s 2 short lines inside a circle. How in the world can that possibly mean PAUSE? What in the world does any of that have to do with anything pertinent? I’m glad you asked!

We live in a world that is addicted to noise and busyness. Even the most committed Christ-Followers take very little time to just “BE QUIET” in God’s presence. We have become so ‘insecure’ in our own individuality that we are afraid of being alone! Even when we’re in our cars ‘alone’ we either have our music playing loudly or our favorite talk show or we are on the phone. (people with the growth looking thing in their ear must be on the phone alot!)

There are two key disciplines that are critical to a personal relationship with Christ. One is “Silence” and the other is “Solitude.” While these two disciplines appear to be the same they are actually different. Silence can happen many times throughout the day. Getting stopped by a traffic light or being stopped unexpectedly by road construction, etc. are opportunities for us to practice the discipline of silence. Take these opportunities and say silently to God: “Here I am Lord, your servant is listening to your voice.” Don’t worry, if you get caught up in listening to God, some other person who isn’t in to “Being Still” will let you know with their horn that is time to GO!

The other discipline is “Solitude.” This requires us to plan times when we can break our routines, get alone and spend some uninterrupted time with God. Here’s the deal for Christ-Followers: We were created by God for Him to fellowship with us and us with Him. If we do not make time for that, God has ways of helping us. Of course, it is usually those times in our lives that we are going to the hospital or when we are sitting with a sick loved one, or listening to the desperation of someone whose marriage is ending. Because we are not making much time to be ALONE with God, He is forced to allow difficult things to come into our lives so that we can focus on Him.

Sometimes we go to Charter’s on demand feature and rent a movie to watch. Again, I confess my ignorance. I didn’t know you could pause the movie, rewind, fast forward, etc. My daughter had to educate me. So, when we are watching a movie and need something to drink, eat, or need to visit another room, we just say: “Push Pause Please!” and you can do what you want and not miss a thing! So, go ahead and say to your life: “Push Pause Please” and take some time to “Be still and know that God is there” (Psalm 46:10). Don’t worry, you won’t miss much. As a matter of fact, if you don’t push “PAUSE” on your life, you are going to miss a lot!

(also check out Mark 6:31; Luke 6:12-13; 1 Kings 19:11-13; Habbakuk 2:1)