Dear Faith Family, 

Be still, and know that I am God.  I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress, (Psalm 46:10-11). 

“I’ve assigned a timeout chair for myself.”  In essence, those were the words I heard from a friend of mine.  Because of his ADD (I think that stands for already done distracted – or…something like that) tendencies, he discovered that listening to his wife was not really, not really, ummm…let’s just say that retention was less than stellar.  So, he came up with the idea of a timeout chair.  When his wife wants to talk, he pulls out his chair, takes a seat, and listens.  What a great idea! 

We live in a world where distractions are the focus and focus has become the distraction.  We’ve got the TV, the radio, the projects, the chores, the relationships, and the computers.  That’s right.  Plural.  Computers.  The desktop, the laptop, the tablet, the phone, the car, the vacuum cleaner, the refrigerator, the thermometer, the doorbell…sorry, I was checking my email.  We live in what I would call a focus-free world! 

And yet, the Psalm calls us to be still!  Sounds like we need a timeout chair.  I don’t think that God is not speaking.  We do have His Word after all.  The question is: am I hearing what He’s saying?  Am I being still long enough to hear His Word? 

Today my timeout chair was just behind the steering wheel of my pickup truck.  I headed north to visit with a couple of friends.  We found some roads that nearly lost their way through the trees.  The kind of roads that if you don’t slow down will shake your giblets loose. 

When we arrived, I stepped out of the truck and listened as the trees inhaled the wind.  The fresh air was delicious.  Someone must have switched to slow-motion mode.  Did you even notice the box turtle crossing the road?  And then?  Then the timeout chair found a spot at The Cyclone for some good old hometown cooking!  More importantly, the fellowship of brothers around the table.  It was time to be still. 

Even the ride home was back in the timeout chair.  We avoided giblet lane.  The hills were alive with the sound of music.  A buzzard floating in thin air.  A deer feasting on divine provision.  And the cows?  I guess they were just being cows.  Doing cow stuff.  Holding the pasture down. 

Here’s the question: where’s your timeout chair today?  Is it empty?     

Let’s take a timeout, 

Pastor Karl