Turn Your Face Towards the Sun

Of all the Christian disciplines, prayer and daily quiet times have to be the hardest ones for me.

Not gonna lie, there’s something a bit icky about sitting by myself and trying to quiet my mind. On top of that, God doesn’t usually jump quickly to mind, it’s more like boredom, distraction, chaos, and the winding path of a mind that hasn’t been properly tamed.

I’ve always thought that the idea behind creating a regular quiet time was purely spiritual, simply about connecting with God. But, as with all the spiritual disciplines, there’s also a benefit for us if we choose to incorporate them into our lives. And no pressure, but it seems to me that the long-term direction of our life is dependent on it.

As I’ve consistently said, this past year I’ve found myself in some of the darkest, coldest places internally; it’s been a real challenge at times. But even when I find myself in that cold place, I have still felt the warmth of the sun on the back of my neck, reminding me that even while black is all I see, if I were to pivot, to change the direction of my focus, I could see something different. But the challenge is and always has been how long it takes me to pivot; how much time I allow myself spend in the darkness before I turn around to face the light.

I think spending that time with God daily, choosing to sit still and be quiet, choosing to commune with God, these things pivot us away from our own things, our own fallibilities, and they turn us towards a God who knows us and cares for us deeply. Coming to that realisation has bought with it a deep peace. Why?

One of the comforts of being a child is that we are not responsible for most of the things happening that are actually out of our control. The people who care for us are responsible for directing us and keeping us safe. The child is responsible for listening, learning, and responding. I’m slowly learning to be more childlike, to let God handle the big things, while I focus on listening, learning, and responding. I don’t actually have to hold full responsibility for my life and the meaning behind it. I just have to be obedient whenever God tells me to move. I can only see some of the canvas, God sees the whole tapestry, and that context is invaluable.

But there is less space for God to speak and correct us when we are not creating that time for quietness and stillness in the busyness of life. Sometimes, when it’s been a long while between quiets, I have to make huge pivots in response to God. There has been so much time walking in the wrong direction that the correction to adjust all of that has to be equally great. But choosing to sit with God daily, well, that provides a safe space to consistently adjust and correct my course before things have gone in the wrong direction too long.

So if there is something I can encourage you with today, it would be to make time to sit in the quiet and let God speak in whatever way he does with you.

And may it become an ever increasingly easy thing to do, to purposely and regularly turn your face towards the sun.