Have you ever seen a horse from this angle?
I have!
Do you know what causes it?
You guessed it: hard stops.
(Go ahead and chuckle. I know you want to.)
Sometimes, a horse has a mind all of his own. He might suddenly decide to stop . . . at full canter, no less.
Life has a way of doing that sometimes, too.
And that’s just where I landed this last week. Fortunately, I didn’t end up sprawled on my back with a snickering horse staring me in the face!
Life was set to full-throttle when, quite suddenly, the flurry of activity stopped and everything stilled. Kind of like a hydrant being tested by a fireman. With the spout wide-open, water gushing with force enough to roll a smart car, but abruptly ends when the valve is closed.
The things of life kept me hopping . . . until I got hit with a nasty virus. Everything stopped. And I spent the next five days at home . . . alone.
Some wise soul once observed, “Silent and listen are both spelled with the same letters.”
The Lord would prove this to be true as I submerged myself in His Word.
Plunged up-to-my-ears in silence, I whispered a prayer, “I’m listening, Lord.”
It took some tuning. Some concentrated effort. But then the blessing came.
If I were to share a word about hard-stops, here it is:
Hard-stops are perfect for prayer.
Number two?
Hard stops create opportunity to be in the Word, where we “hear” God speak.
And #3?
Hard-stops are made for listening.
Whenever you still to listen to the Lord, you usually learn a few things.
And boy did I ever!
I learned there is a difference between talking at God and speaking to Him. It should be more conversational and less tossing up a litany of wants.
I also learned to love the silence—because it's a holy time when you can truly listen.
Considering the constant buzz of activity, combined with all the noise around us, we would benefit greatly from intentionally planning hard-stops in our day before the Lord—to tune our hearts in the silence . . . to listen.