Is There Need for Speed?

There’s a tap on my window, then a Voice, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
“Uh, not really, but I’ve got a good reason for going fast—“
“I see.”
“It seems that I’ve got so much to do that I can’t really slow down. At least, not without sacrificing something.”
“So that’s how you see things, huh?” He said.
“‘He who hesitates is lost.’ That’s what they say. Right?” I wait for His answer.
“And ‘Haste makes waste,’” He replies. “I’m sure you’ve heard that too. Right?”
I nod.
“Again, do you know how fast you were going?”
I shake my head and look at the speedometer needle. It sits at zero.
“You were going so fast that you missed Me.”

Have you had one of those conversations with God?

God has looked at me here lately and asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?” It’s easy to move quickly, make the snap decisions, press forward with all speed and miss Him. And the main reason that I tend to go so fast is this: I think that it all depends upon me. If I do it all right, make the grade, dot each “I” and cross every “T,” I will see the next level, pull myself up by the bootstraps, and attain some sort of fulfillment. In the midst of my grasping and striving, I can miss Him.
I think about Martha and Mary in Luke 10. Martha was “distracted with much serving” (v. 40). The phrase literally means, “She was dragging around.” Martha was overcome with all the things that didn’t matter so much, and she didn’t seem to realize just how fast she was going. She missed Him. All the while Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, and Jesus said that she had “chosen that good part” (v. 42). She slowed down to spend time with the most important One.
I’ve been teaching through the book of Habakkuk, and I came across a word that I’ve seen many times before: selah. It’s a Hebrew word (used in songs), and most scholars agree that it is a musical notation indicating a pause. I read the Habakkuk passage from The Amplified Bible, and after the word selah follows this clarification of meaning: “pause, and calmly think of that.” The verse before the pause (3:3) speaks of God’s glory leading the people through the wilderness, and then, “pause, and calmly think of that.” Selah is found again and again in the Psalms. David writes, while being pursued by Absalom and his men, “I cried to the LORD with my voice, and He heard me from His holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I awoke for the LORD sustained me” (Ps. 3:4, 5). God hears David (pause and calmly think of that), and he sleeps knowing the source of his strength is from above.
I need to pause, and calmly think of some things, things that are truly important to God, not just those things that have “importance” to me. I’m finding that I’ve missed a lot. I’m getting tired of being “pulled over” and being asked, “Do you know how fast you were going?”
But what tires me more is the answer to that question:
“Too fast to see You, God. Too fast to see You.”

Dustin C. George
Minister to Single Adults
www.sevierheights.org