Quiet time

Today's Streams in the Desert really convicted me in a different way. It was a very short paragraph, but it stressed the importance of having quiet time with God. Now the only quiet time on the tier is before 6 a.m., and I don't think I have been giving God enough of that quiet time.

You see, there is no where to escape to during the day from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; there is no way to avoid the chaos and find complete silence. The tier is about 2000 sq. ft rectangular with 38 males, so at all times, I am at least 4 yards away from someone. The quiet hours are from midnight to 6 a.m., so that would be my only opportunity to give God my complete and utter attention without any interruptions.

It is impossible, (even as I write this), not to have someone interrupt constantly during the waking hours. This "chaos" is the ultimate patience tester, character sharpener, and attitude adjuster; IF and only IF handled the right way.

I am thankful for this furnace, but I also know I need quiet time with God. It's easy to get caught up in the pointless hustle and bustle of the tier, and I refuse to go back to the priorities I had before I got here-- where I went from one place to the next, from one activity to another, all without giving God quiet solitude.

As Streams so aptly put it, "Contact with others in society is not what causes the soul to grow most vigorously. In fact, one quiet hour of prayer will often yield greater results than many days spent in the company of others" (p. 372).

This environment has certainly brought me to where I am at today, mentally and spiritually, but to grow in grace, a quiet solitude is a must. I know very well that I need my rest at night to attack these days, but I'm definitely gonna have to wake up even earlier now, and this doesn't bother me, cause like Nas said, "Sleep is the cousin of death". Nothing in this world, incarcerated or not, should keep us from at least an hour of quiet time for God .

"My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to you, And I will look up" (Psalm 5:3).