I Feel the Need!

“I feel the need: the need…for speed!” My husband and I just saw Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the movie with this classic line. The fast-moving flight sequences in both movies are thrilling to watch!

Recently I’ve come to realize that I’ve spent decades living as if I, too, “feel the need for speed.” No, I haven’t been flying fighter jets. But I have rarely slowed down, even for a few moments, since I was in high school. I’ve been a teacher, a writer, a speaker, a volunteer, a wife, and a mother of six, including children with special needs. I’ve done these things and more for so long that it’s hard for me to figure out how to slow down and focus on God. Yet I do feel the need: the need…for quiet time with God! I know—it doesn’t rhyme like the movie line. However, it is a true need for me, and I’m pretty sure it is a true need for you as well.

In recent years, the value of mindfulness in achieving mental health has received a lot of attention. Mindfulness, simply put, is giving focused attention to one’s thoughts in the present moment, free from distractions. While mindfulness may be a fairly new emphasis in the secular world, Christians have always had a similar and even better practice available to them: taking time for focused attention on God’s Word and prayer, free from other distractions. Long ago, in Old Testament times, David reminded us to “be still before the Lord” (Psalm 37:7). And the Old Testament prophet Daniel provided us an incredible example of this. Although he was a busy, high-level official in a foreign land, he still took breaks from his work three times per day to focus on God and pray to him—even when threatened with death! (Daniel 6:10)

These men had wisdom from God. They knew the value of focused, distraction-free time with God. In today’s busy world, as we women race from one thing to the next—working, getting our kids to their various activities, volunteering, running errands—it can be easy to drop focused time with God from our schedules. It just doesn’t seem possible to fit it in! But we need that time. In fact, the more we keep our minds on God, the more clarity and calm we have for our busy days.

Did you know that taking regular, focused, distraction-free time with God can, and likely will, be life-changing? Scientists have found that slowing down and praying actually physically rewires our brains in a positive way. (1)

I recently was reminded of how this is illustrated in the story of Saul’s conversion, which happened after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Saul, a persecutor of Christians, became an eager missionary for Jesus instead. But we aren’t told that this happened to him immediately after meeting Jesus on that road. First, Saul had three distraction-free days to think about what had happened. He didn’t distract himself with eating or drinking during those days. And Jesus actually helped remove all distractions from Saul by making him blind during that time as well! Saul could do nothing but think and pray, distraction-free. And he came out of those three days a completely changed man.

You and I shouldn’t need to be struck blind in order to learn the importance of distraction-free time with God. We have the example of Jesus, who himself regularly took time out of his busy ministry to be alone with his heavenly Father. If he, the God of the universe, needed this time, how much more do we need the same?

While speed can be exciting and even invigorating, we have the opposite need. We need to find distraction-free, focused time for God’s Word and prayer every day. And we don’t need scientists to tell us how good this is for us. We have God’s Word.

It took me far too long to learn this important truth, but thankfully, it’s never too late. Friend, I hope you won’t wait as long as I did to figure it out. Take the time to be alone with God often. Once you start this new habit, you’ll be glad you did! 

(1) Spector, Nicole. “This is your brain on prayer and meditation,” NBC, October 20, 2017. https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/your-brain-prayer-meditation-ncna812376