She’s a voice for her generation, this dear friend of mine more than half my age.  She’s wise.  She’s passionate.  She’s sincerely in love with Jesus and wants to serve Him with all her heart.

So do many of her generation.

They want to know their mission.  They want to know their calling.  They want to make a difference, not be indifferent, in a world that seems increasingly callous.

She’s a twenty-something woman with twenty-something friends.  The world has changed dramatically since I was a twenty-something woman.

So what do I know?  Do I have any wise words?  Or am I like the dinosaur, bound for extinction on an earth spinning too fast, advancing so much.  Maybe I have become a lumbering, lingering spiritual contemplative, out-of-touch, not resonating with the younger generation.

Maybe.  But as a 50-something woman, I’ve grown enough to respect what my elders imparted to me when I was 20-something.  And as  50-something woman in a world that feels to me like it’s spinning a bit off center—or more—I’m finding wise, comforting, and challenging words in writers of the past, from an era before us.  Some things never change—like our God and his ways.

So here’s what I know—for what it’s worth—if anything.  I’m just praying, humbly hoping there will be just a crumb that might satisfy one hungering, hoping soul . . .

There’s something to slowing.

There’s something profoundly necessary about slowing and silencing and connecting long and intimately with God.  There’s something about emptying and waiting for filling.

Human beings are not machines that can crank out good works and bring about the kingdom of God without spending a good amount of time in God’s presence.

Yes, there’s much to do—so many world problems to solve—so many missions calling—some overseas—more in our own “backyards” of inner-city neighborhoods crying for Christ—or our own suburban neighborhoods crying for a real, listening ear.  Have we lost ourselves in the hustle, being hustled right out of our minds and disconnected from our souls?

We don’t have to stop anymore.  In fact, our cultural current has washed us into the rapids where we hardly stop and think anymore.  We’re becoming more like machines than human beings.

We don’t have to stop anymore.  We don’t have to be silent anymore.

We have IPods and Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest and Twitter and smart phones and YouTube and podcasts and so—many—more ways to keep distracting ourselves and filling our heads while our hearts just bleed out before us without us hardly noticing—till we’re half-dead or beyond.

And then we find ourselves longing for meaning and mission.

Could the search of our cause—our mission—our calling be yet another distraction?

Could our souls really be calling us into the slow and quiet of contemplation and prayer—into the very presence of God for more than five minutes here and there, in between all the other “calls” on our life?

What if we sought God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—seeking to love Him more than anything or anyone else in our lives?  What if we proved our affection for Him with our time and tolerance of quiet?  What if?  Can we even sit still anymore?  Can we even be silent?

Want to find your calling—your mission—your cause?

Find your Maker before anything or anyone else.

Get intimate.

Spend time.

Get quiet.

BREATHE.

Listen even more than you talk.

Learn to hear His heartbeat in the silence, the stillness.

Tell Him how such silence and stillness makes your eager heart anxious.

Then see how He moves you.

YOU.

Not anyone else.

We don’t need bandwagons.

We need single soul sold-outs.

YOU ARE HIS PRECIOUS!

Dare to slow.

Dare to be counter-cultural.

Dare to be obedient to God’s word as written, not re-written by friends, pastors, non-believers in such a way that tickles modern ears and condones normalized lifestyles.

Dare to be different.

Plunge the paddle of YOU into the rapids.

BACK-PADDLE!

Do this.

Over time.

I wager my life on His promise:

If you seek the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength—if you seek to love Him first, love yourself as He loves you, then love others the same . . .

You will change the world—whatever small piece or large God gives you.

You don’t need to do something huge and applauded by Mankind.

You need to love God, your Maker, more than anything.  He will take care of all else.

This is your call, your cause, your mission—should you choose to accept.  I hope and pray you do.  Me too.  What mighty works God might just do if you and I join forces and start our days simply seeking Him in silence and simplicity.