Girlfriends!
Why don't we take a few minutes and chat about our "knowing" place, today. You know what I'm talking about. It's that place you find yourself when something wakes you up at 3:15 in the morning...a dog barks, tires screech, a train whistle blows in the distance, too much coke before bedtime :) Whatever the reason, you are awake and it's so still, sooooo quiet. It's like no other time of your day. If you lean into the stillness and listen to the quiet, you encounter it...your "knowing" place. It's where you store what you know in your knower! :-)
Today, we surround ourselves with so much noise and activity; we have a constant influx of material coming at us and filling our minds so that there is hardly time for any quiet reflection or real communication with each other. I had to smile, to myself, when I passed by two people, recently, at a table, having lunch, each one texting, presumably, having a separate conversation, with 2 open laptops between them! Nice lunch! :-) With our blackberrys, smart phones, laptops, T.V.'s, cell phones, ipod's, PSP's, WII's, portable DVD's, IPAD's....and no doubt newer gadgets that I am as of yet, unaware, the information in our knowers (the place where the knowing place stores what we know) can hardly be heard - too much competition!! These things may all have their place but let's not forget the value of some quiet time to re-group and evaluate what we are about. :-)
Let me simplify what I wanna say here, today. I just want to encourage you to take a visit to your knowing place and really know what you know in your knower! :-D Got that? lol! It's very likely that you KNOW what you need to do in most situations you face, today. If you look back, and you are anything like me, you can see that where you had a pretty good idea what you should or should not have said, or done, at the beginning of your decision making process. In most cases. you can see where you took the wrong road and it all began in your knower. You had that feeling of discomfort or doubt but acted, while ignoring that small but undeniable voice. As you ignored it, it grew fainter and the noise of what you wanted to do, at the time, grew louder, right along with a small but growing sense of unrest inside. I would speculate some of the results, in various situations, have included symptoms like fatigue, guilt, lack of peace or anxiety, confusion. weight gain, weight loss, mood swings, a sense of sadness, relational issues, etc. Any time we step outside the realm of our true core beliefs and values, we will suffer some of these or other hurtful symptoms. These are warning signs to us, from a good God, that we need to re-evaluate where we moved away from our knowing place and get back "in the zone" or, we could say, back in tune with our knower because that is the place where we find rest and peace. It is the place where we are living out what we truly believe is right, in our hearts. Make sense?
I want to offer up one disclaimer here...Do I mean, by this, that just because a person believes something is right, it automatically is? Whoa! Hold onto your seatbelts...Absolutely not! The people who flew into our towers on 911 apparently believed they were doing what was right! The Bible does indicate that it is possible to be deceived. "There is a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof is death." (Proverbs 16:25) I wish I had an easy answer for how this can be avoided...but I can say this. I truly don't believe we need to fear this happening to us if we will remember the first 2 commandments. "Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your might and all your strengh and...love your neighbor as yourself". (Deut 6:5, Luke 10:27) Check with your knower and I believe you will find confirmation that this agrees with all that is right and good!! :-) I also have confidence that as we seek God with these key commandments at the forefront, open and honest hearts and a humble spirit, we will know and understand the truth. It may take more than one trip, or an extended stay, to our knowing place, in order to reconnect and tune in, especially if we have become dull in our senses over a period of time. Persist and your knower will reveal itself once again!
I believe in order to experience true peace (P.E.I.S.) we need to make a visit to our "knowing" place and ask God to shine his all-knowing and all-loving searchlight into our hearts and check our "fitness" levels, Physically, Emotionally, Intellectually and Spiritually. Each of these begins with a visit to our knowing place. We can know in our knower what is right but we need the power to DO what is right. This is where spirituality comes in. My challenge to you, and to myself, today, is to visit your knowing place - it doesn't have to be 3:15 a.m. but you do have to get still and quiet, and may I suggest you invite God to join you? He is the one who has the ability to reveal what you need and to supply the power to live out what you discover. He wants to share with you, as your Creator, the plans he has for you and the purpose he wants to fulfill in your life.
Still Climbing,
Cher
