The other night, we had a campfire. We watched the flames dance, listened to the wood crack and pop. We watched the wind blow the smoke around. We sat mostly in silence. Nothing needed to be said. In those moments, I experienced a greater sense of peace and contentment than I had in a long while. I just breathed the fresh air. I merely sat there enjoying the moment. My soul drank in the stillness.
Think about the time and effort it takes to grow plants in a garden. In order to get the fruit from the plants, the soil needs to be tilled and the plants require water and sunshine. So it is with spiritual growth.
We go days, weeks and months without purposely being still. When we are caught in a situation where we must wait we are bored out of our minds. We’re impatient as we wait and become crankier and more irritated the longer that waiting lasts. Some of us have ways of dealing with these times and they often involve either taking a nap or whipping out our smart phone to surf the internet, text, e-mail or something fun or work related to pass the time and feel productive.