Stop Being a Moving Target! 

Did that title get your attention? I hope so. Stop being a moving targetof what? (You may be asking.) Well, clearly if you’re being stalked or the Paparazzi are chasing you, you're ducking and hiding your famous (or infamous) face. If people you want to avoid are pursuing, you shut down the phone, ignore the text, walk a different direction, etc.  In other words you become a moving target. We all know how to duck and hide, run for cover, throw up smoke and mirrors, or even hide inside a false self; to obfuscate, to protect and defend ourselves, right?


It is true that most of us have busy, overly-committed, overly-crowded lifestyles. We can't escape the phones, texts, emails, instant messages, social media, and overall onslaught of demands and overstimulation. So we have learned to maneuver and hide. But what if we are so good at hiding, that we lose our true selves? What if deep down in the depths of our hearts we are longing to be (genuinely) seen, understood, known, and appreciated? Can we stand still long enough to let that happen? Can we let that friendship, that relationship, that affirmation, that love find us? Can we chill, hang out, relax, slow down, long enough to be aware of the moment and what it may be offering?


Do an exercise with me. Let's just practice being aware. How do you feel, this second? What do you notice? Is your heart racing? Is your chest tight? Or is your body calm? What stimuli are you noticing? Are you bombarded with sounds? Is your phone beeping? Your computer chirping? Are you warm, cold, comfortable? Can you pay attention to the feeling of the floor beneath your feet, or the colors surrounding you, the scents in the air, the atmosphere around you? What are the thoughts in your mind? What are you paying attention to? Take a break from reading to notice these things. Take your time. I'll wait for you, till you come back. 


So, did you recognize your state of being? Could you silence the onslaught enough to check in with yourself? Do you need something? A drink of water? A bite to eat? Some rest? More time to reflect? Time with a friend? What is your body, mind, and spirit saying to you? 


What I notice is that I need more time, more space really, to let God be present with me. My busyness, my projects and task lists, keep me being that moving targetkeep me from me, and more importantly, keeps my sense of God at a distance. Yet when I slow down and take notice (like in the exercise above) what I really feel and need, is the peace of God's Presence.  I need the confidence that He is near, and that His love overcomes any concern, or fear, or loneliness I may feel.  I need to cease from being a moving target, cease striving, as the Bible says, so I can actually learn to be still and know God. 


And so I begin a dialogue with the invisible God, who I sense is nearby. I ponder what I am experiencing, or the circumstances I find myself in. I ask "What does this mean, God, from Your perspective? What is Your view of this? Your view from such a higher, calmer, more joyful, and hopeful place. What do these circumstances, these feelings and thoughts, mean from the place where love reigns?”

 

 I am sitting in my tiny living room, realizing that what I don't enjoy about my small home, isn't so much its smallness (though that adds to the claustrophobia) but that it has ceilings and walls! I am weary of ceilings and walls. I need space, I need sky, I need to soar. (Unfettered by my own inventions that create obstacles, and fear, and negativity in the place where God would call me into freedom.) I feel constricted by the narrowness of walls, blocked by the abruptness and shallowness of ceilings. I sense I could fledge like a young eagle and fly off into destiny as God defines it. 


"How do You interpret these feelings, these sensations, these circumstances, God? What of Your heart is here for me to hear? Show me from Your eye-angle; what truth, what revelation lurks here, hiding in plain view for me to discover? What Kingdom perspective is mysteriously smiling, waiting to be seen and known, so that it can light up the darkness, overcome angst with joy, transport my heart to boundless spaces full of freedom, goodness, kindness, peace,—all supported and infused by love as You define it." As I close my eyes to see God more clearly, the walls give way to expanse, and I am free to move about the heavens. The grief and stress of solitary confinement (one I created with busyness and being a moving target) melts away, and I am greeted by a host of heavenly thoughts and impressions.

 

I am calmer now. My space has expanded, as has my heart. I can let the peace fill me, the hope smiles volumes into my soul, and the joy gurgles up in a tingling sensation. I feel transported beyond my belief in limitations, and my faith is beginning to swell. God is near. He is always for me and not against me.  The moving target that was me has settled into His Presence for the moment. Hmm. To learn to stay here..

© Laurel Basbas 2014