Come to the Quiet

A Friend asked me to reflect on the results of the media fast. Here is what I sent her in response:

Some Reflections:

1. Time slowed down. It is amazing how often I put electronic noise in the gaps of my days. when I take out internet stuff and t.v. alone, my world is quieter and I have more time. I think I only use those toys in unscheduled time, and I guess that is true. However, if I wasn't watching t.v. or fooling around on the net during those unscheduled times, I'd feel more relaxed and more like I had time to do other things.

2. like sleep. I went to bed earlier, at least an hour, and got up earlier every day that week.

3. like think. quiet moments help you think, about God, about anything.

4. less sitting around. besides radio, most media requires sitting on one's hind parts! including reading the paper. I kept moving.

5. increased prayer quality --not time. finding time to pray doesn't get easier. there is always the temptation to put off praying for a different activity. However, I found my praying to be more relaxed, more easy to focus --less like I was shifting gears. By contrast, my prayer time can feel like I just pulled off of a high speed freeway and jumped into a quiet room. My mind is still racing. but for that week, I would just start talking with God in my mind, and there were not a hundred other thoughts and voices and ideas crowding in.

6. My emotions were more on the surface. I felt even negative emotions more easily. I guess I can go through life with some angst, some slight worries, or some slight depressiveness, and I drown it out with the noise of life. Can't do that when the noise of life goes out. This is a good thing. I found myself thinking and talking to God about why I felt the feelings I did, how to endure, how to gain more hope, how to improve.

>> along those lines, a beautiful thought hit me: Jesus bore all my negative emotions on the cross. The Bible says He bears our sicknesses and our diseases, our infirmities, our sins, all of it. Well, then, those times of fear and anxiety and depression must fall in there somewhere. This means two things: He knows how I feel for He bore it for me. I am understood and not alone. Second, He bore my fears and sorrows in order to remove their power over me. Whether now or in the future, I will one day be free from the internal struggles of emotion native to this fallen man.