How to Hear God in a Busy Life - Pastor Naeem Fazal

[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naim and you've reached the Mosaic Church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there and there's more opportunities for you get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity and I'd love for you to pay it forward. [00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy. [00:00:56] Woo. [00:00:59] Hello. Hello. Hello. [00:01:01] Let me introduce myself. [00:01:05] All right. [00:01:07] It's not that bad. [00:01:10] It's not that bad. [00:01:11] For those of you who are brand new, you're like, what's happening? I shaved. That's what's happening. I shaved. [00:01:17] And this is why I remind. [00:01:20] This is my reminder why I have a beard. [00:01:23] So, yes, yes, yes, I shaved. Hey, but that's not what we're here for, friends. We are starting a brand new series called Margin. Margin. I'll tell you what. So here's what's been happening this summer. I don't know if it's been a crazy summer for you, but for me it has been. I was trying to figure out, like, I've been on a book tour, so I came out with a book and then been. Yeah, Been different places. Thank you, Trevor. [00:01:48] Or my mom, whoever was clapping. No, it wasn't. My mom's not here, but I think I've spoken to like 25, 000 people or so. [00:01:56] But what's crazy is, like, I was done, yo. So I'm like, done for the. On this book tour. And I'm like, have you ever been to a point? You're like, I'm done. Like, it's all cool, traveling and all that. I like, done. Like, you want a vacation from your vacation. You know what I'm saying? You're like, I just don't want to be in an airport. I was like, done, done, done. Like, like, max out in life. I don't know about you, but, like, I find myself doing it in other areas as well. And what happens, the one thing that happens is, is that I get mean. Anybody get mean? [00:02:23] Is it? No. Okay. Okay. Okay. You get mean, right? [00:02:25] You just get mean or short with people. You're like, ah, I'm done. You're emotionally done. [00:02:30] You know, you're like, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. And that's why we're starting a series, because you guys have been so mean. I've heard in the last. No, I'm joking. [00:02:39] No, we're talking about margin. Because I feel like for so many of us, we live lives. And I know a lot of you, you guys are like. You guys are go getters. [00:02:48] You got a job, and then you got a side hustle, and then your side hustle has a side hustle. And you're doing all kinds of things. And you find yourself just, like, burning out. Anybody burning out, tired. And you're like, oh, my gosh, it's already August. What are we doing here? What happened to the summer? And so what I wanna do is I wanna. Next. This whole month, we're gonna be talking about creating margin in life. And. And margin is that space, right, that you have where you can actually take a breather. You can create a moment. You can just breathe from one appointment to the next appointment. Creating margin in our lives. And I think for so many of us, because of our personalities, we just like to go, go, go, go, go. And we believe in this myth of more. Have you heard of this myth of more? And that is that more is better. Just more is better. More of everything is better. Here's the truth. More just means more. [00:03:35] More just means more. If more equals more, too, the more you do something, the more you'll do it again. [00:03:41] Whatever it is, good, bad or ugly, the more you do something, the more you will do it again. And the problem is, is once we jump on that wagon, either financially, we will go beyond our budget. We will just. We'll burn out. We'll get in debt, we'll get in trouble. We go relationally. Oh, my gosh. We will start hating people that we love. I mean, if you go emotionally or relationally, you'll just tap out. You're like, I'm just kind of spent in life. And then when it comes to spiritually, you'll get to a point where you're just, like, not really feeling that you're close to God or you're hearing from God. And so what we wanna do is we wanna talk about these different areas. And this week, I wanna talk about spiritually. Like, what is the big thought spiritually? And here's the big thought. Okay, I'm gonna Put it on screen for you. Here's where God's gonna meet us. He's gonna meet us somewhere. Okay. He's gonna meet us in the what? [00:04:34] The margin of our lives. He couldn't meet us in the margin of your life. Now, when you think of the word margin, I don't know what comes to mind. You kind of go understand. Others of you are like, I don't really use that word a whole lot, but okay. Now, I grew up. So I grew up in an Indian. Like, I was. I grew up in Kuwait, but I went to an Indian school. And in the Indian school, they actually. I mean, you know, Indians. Oh, my gosh. They're. [00:05:00] They're very smart people. Okay. But I'm Pakistani, so. Hoo hoo. Okay, so that was not fun. And I also had a learning disability. Did not realize that. And I just did all kinds of things and. Okay, let me just admit something. I'll just admit something. Is that cool? I can admit something. [00:05:15] Okay. Okay. [00:05:17] I cheated all the time in tests. All the time. I mean, I was just like. I was like, super duper cheater in tests. I was like, I had it all down. I was not the smartest, but I was clever enough to figure out how to cheat. Can I just. [00:05:35] Can I be open and honest? Is this a safe space? Okay. Anybody else ever tempted to do that? [00:05:42] Okay, you got one, two. Can I get three, four, five, six. Oh, no, you were just touching your ear. Okay, okay. All right, all right. [00:05:50] So I did. I did. Now here's the problem, though. And the problem is that. So especially when it got to complicated math, you know, besides two plus two, what they required was that they give you a problem. And it was a sheet like this. It would give you a problem. And then they would say, we don't want just the answer to the problem. We want you to. [00:06:13] Yeah. Show the work. And the. Show the work was always in the what? [00:06:17] It was in the margin. So you show the work in the margin. [00:06:21] And I was like, oh, my goodness, we are in trouble now. Because I could always get the right answer and pass the test. Like, my goal in life when it came to academics was get the right answer and what? Pass the test. That was it. That was it. But then they came up with this whole idea of show the work in the margin. I was like, okay. And that's when I started failing people. That's when I started. I repeated fifth grade twice. I mean, that just happened and all that stuff. And I wondered, though, I wonder if our spirituality is like, that I wonder if you've been given a spirituality that says, hey, all God wants from you is the right answer, because he's testing you. [00:06:55] That's all he wants. And so what I want you to do is you live your life. You live this whole life over here, and all God wants is just the right answer. So your Christianity, your faith with Jesus, your relationship with God is all about, okay, saying the right things or figuring out what the right answer is. And it's about what is the right and what is wrong, and that's it. And your life has been about that. And when you hear from God, it's really about what's the right answer, what's the wrong answer, what's this? And because you believe that your Christianity, that your relationship with God is always a test, that God's always trying to test you and tempt you or give you things, and you go, okay, are you gonna learn from this? Are you gonna learn from that? And I just wonder. I wonder if that's all wrong. I wonder if God's like, saying, you know what? No, no, here's the deal. What I wanna do is I actually wanna meet you in the margin of. Of your life, because that's where I get to work. That's where you put in the work to get close with God. See, so many of us, what we find is we go, you know what? No, we wanna live to the max. [00:07:52] We want to go out on a limb. We want to risk it all. We wanna do the things. Because we have this theology that says, God is the God who saves me. But we sang about Jehovah. For some of you guys, you're like, what is Jehovah? Jehovah is a Hebrew word for God, the God who heals, the God who provides, the God who gives us peace. And the truth is, is that God is a God who wants to do that. But see, I wonder, though, if you only believe or have a relationship with a God who just saves you. I wonder if you're missing all the other stuff about God's personality. [00:08:27] Like, if you come to faith in Jesus and you're like, God saved me. And be like, oh, I got saved, I got saved. I got saved, I got saved. I wonder. I wonder, though, if we're living our lives sometimes just wanting God to always save us. [00:08:40] So what we'll do is our faith is like, we'll go over the top. We'll go financially, we will go. We will spend more because we believe God's gonna make a way. Won't he do it? He'll do it, he'll do it. He'll show up. And so what happens is. And I've met people like that, and I was tempted to live that way, is that you put yourself at risk. Emotionally, you make bad decisions. Emotionally, you make bad decisions relationally, financially, career wise, everything you mentioned. [00:09:09] Why? Because God is the God who saves me. [00:09:12] And so what we think is, when God saves me, it's a miracle when God gets you out and just like, just so kind to you and gives you a miracle. So what happens is we end up living a life that we go. We don't live with the margin of. When it comes to our health, we eat like hell because we know that God's gonna save us and take us to heaven. [00:09:33] Or we put ourselves in. In a position where we want a miracle. Now we're just praying for these miracles. And I wonder if God's like, you're missing out on so much because at some point it just gets tired of always saving you. [00:09:47] I mean, you know what I'm saying? It's like, if you've ever had kids, right, you know, and they've been in the pool and you're like, oh, this is fun. And, you know, if they're learning how to swim and you save them or you're always with them and all that, that's great. You know what's cute in the four? It's not cute when they're 44. [00:10:03] See what I'm saying? You're like, just stand up. I mean, it's four feet of water, like. Or what? And I wonder if God's like, is that it? [00:10:14] Is that all you have? Is that all I'm here for, to save you? [00:10:19] Or is there more? And I believe God, I believe that there's so much more that God wants to provide for us. So here's this idea, okay? And I don't know how Jesus did this, but he did it. Okay, so Luke 5 records something. It says here news. It says news about Jesus kept spreading. Large crowds came to listen to him teach and to be healed of the diseases. So what happened is Jesus, when he comes on the scene, a couple of years into it, man, he's pulling massive crowds. Massive crowds. Guess what? There's so much work to be done. Twice he had to feed these people. Remember that 4,000, 5,000 he's had to do. There's so much work. [00:10:58] And also, Jesus, like, did all his things in three years. So if you kind of knew you had three years to live, three more years to live, and he was Gonna start. He started his talking about God when he was about 30, died about 33. Three years. Boy, he is on a schedule. [00:11:16] He's got stuff to do. So many things, so many needs. So many needs. I mean, I get overwhelmed with just like couple of weeks of just doing some things, but he's got so many that needs. And then the middle of that, in the middle of that, Jesus would do this. Jesus would often, what, go to some place where he could be, what, alone? [00:11:41] Jesus is like, I need a break from all of you. And he would just go pray. [00:11:51] Jesus learned to make, like. Learn to create a margin in his spirituality. [00:11:58] Jesus, the guy who got the download, the son of God. Ah, he had to create margin in his life. And I wonder. Shoot, you think I do. [00:12:09] You think you do? [00:12:11] I wonder spiritually if you're not. If you're burnt out or you just feel like. I don't. I don't know. I don't know. I'm just doing the things. I wonder if it's because it's the. [00:12:20] It's the power to just say no. And in fact, here's what I want you to learn to do, okay? I want you to learn to say no to the good things like Jesus did. Hey, it's good to heal. It's good to be with people. It's good to serve people. It's good to, you know, just be there for people. Yes. But then he said no to some good things and times, so he could say what? [00:12:45] Yes to even. What? Better things. Better things. I think for some of us, we live in a world of urgency, urgency, urgency, urgency. Because the kids have this and the things, the things and this and so. And so needs this and that book report and that, you know, that power presentation and those clients I gotta meet and I gotta do the things, and I gotta do that and this. Urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent. And like, your phone pops up, all the messages, all the stinking notifications, and I'm like, I don't even want to know whose birthday it is. You know? Like, it's just like, just so many, so many urgent, urgent. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. And what happens is you don't have time for actually the necessary things. [00:13:24] Then for some of us, we just don't. Have you ever, like, gone through a day and like, oh, my gosh, I haven't eaten. [00:13:29] You haven't eaten. [00:13:31] You're like, oh, that's cool. I'm working. [00:13:36] I know, but I wonder if you need some margin in your life, because if you're starving yourself physically I can only imagine what you're doing spiritually. [00:13:49] And some of us have not eaten spiritually in months. [00:13:53] There's no fault. I mean, it's not no blame. I mean, I, I, I blame my, I'm, I'm thinking about myself. I find myself going, I just do so much work for like, shoot, I get paid, I get paid to do God work, you know what I'm saying? I get paid for this. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I just find myself just burning out. And so spiritually, how can we learn, how can we learn to say no to the good things so we can actually choose the better things? So a great story that illustrates this, the story of Mary and for extra credit, Martha. Yes, Mary and Martha, two sisters interact with Jesus. And if you guys already know the story, but here's what you might be missing in this story. So it starts off, it starts off with this idea how Jesus picks. He actually picks the better instead of the good. Because the beginning of the story starts off like this. It says, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, they came to a village where a what? Where a what? A what? Who. [00:14:55] Say it again. [00:14:56] A woman, not a man, Right? Waha. Who? [00:14:59] A woman named Martha opened her house to him. Let me just tell you right now, is that the chances of a rabbi showing up to an all woman's house was none. [00:15:13] So I just wanted to let you know that if rabbis were gonna visit houses, they would always have the man of the house situation going on. Back in those days, definitely in that culture, it was always like, okay, so we don't go to this house. We, we don't go to this house. So there's a very good chance, very good chance that there was never a rabbi, a spiritual leader to come to the house of just a woman. Cause there was no what man of the house. Jesus chooses. [00:15:44] He chooses the better instead of the good. A lot of good houses to pick from. A lot of good houses. A lot of good houses to go to. He picks intentionally to go to a woman's house. Which again, friends, we go by this story and we go, oh yeah, I've heard the story. But the disciples were like, are you sure about this? [00:16:01] We have so many other houses. [00:16:03] He's like, no, I'm picking this on purpose. We're going to this house. She's opened up her house. We're going to this house. Oh, okay, okay, we're doing that. So he's again, there's a struggle back and forth on what's better. And what's good? What's good and what's better? [00:16:21] How do you pick from. From those two? So here's what happens. We go into the story. So what happens is we jump into it and we just keep on going. The next verse says that she had a sister. She had a sister called. Anybody know? Called who? [00:16:36] Mary. Who sat at the. What, Lord's feet listening to what he said. Right there. Right there. The next thing that happens again, there is a dynamic interplay of people choosing good versus better. [00:16:51] So this sister, the other sister, not Martha, but Mary picks and goes to Jesus, and she sits down and just because he's teaching and he sits down and she's just gonna listen. Which again, you and I would say, yeah, of course we could do that. But again, friends, this is thousands of years ago. This is a culture that says, no, no, no, no, no, no, sit under the rabbi. [00:17:19] The women are in the kitchen or they're doing something else. But the public space, that doesn't happen. In fact, A scholar named N.T. wright makes an argument that the issue here that started right from the beginning was that Mary was acting like a man. [00:17:39] So the disciples are sitting around going, what are you doing here? [00:17:44] What is happening? Because your place is in the. [00:17:47] Your place is in the kitchen. What's happening here? All of a sudden, Mary is choosing something, choosing something better instead of good. But Martha chooses what is good. And if you know that story, what happens here? But Martha says here, verse 40 says, but Martha was distracted by all the. What preparations that had to be made. She was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. [00:18:17] And so she ends up going and asking Jesus, what's happening here? Now, what is interesting about it is that. What did Martha choose? [00:18:27] Martha chose something good. She chose to be responsible to host this thing. She invited Jesus in. She was like, I'm responsible for this. And if you ever hosted a party, which we throw parties all the time here, man. A good host is magic. [00:18:43] A bad host is. [00:18:46] Well, exactly. Okay. It makes the breaks and party. You know that. You know that. Okay. A good host is like, oh, my gosh, I feel amazing. So Martha's like, I'm the hostess with the mostest. Yes, we got this. We're gonna do this. But, you know, guess what? I need a sidekick. Where's my sidekick? Oh, she is sitting. [00:19:04] They're listening to Jesus, probably really close. So I can't even get her attention. [00:19:09] So she does that. Martha picks and is distracted by. Why is she distracted? Because there's so many things to do. She's not just in the kitchen, friends. [00:19:18] There's no mention of the kitchen. [00:19:20] The mention is she's responsible for this whole thing. So she's, like, doing this stuff, and here's what she chooses. I want you to not miss this, because if you read this and you might have never heard this before, and because in the actual Greek, the word preparations. [00:19:37] The word preparations is the word di. Let me write this right? Daiokonia. I hope I'm saying it right. Okay. Diakonia. Diakonia is where we get the word deacon from. [00:19:55] She was choosing a good thing, not the better thing. A good thing to. To become and to go and to deacon all over the place. [00:20:06] The word literally deacon means to serve or to minister. [00:20:11] So she was actually choosing to minister and to do. If you ever heard this phrase, the work of the ministry. She was doing that. She was like. She was acting like a deacon. Like, as in she was doing work and service for God. [00:20:28] So one sister chooses something that's better, and the other chooses something that's really good, really good to do. [00:20:37] That's where you get the word deacon from. Deacons are called to serve the people, and she is doing that. She might have been the first one who started deaconing people. [00:20:48] But the problem is, if you do enough work, it doesn't matter how much you love that person. If you do a lot of work and you get no help, you get a little cranky, right? You get like, am I doing all the things here? Am I in charge? I do everything. Have you ever heard that? I do everything around here. [00:21:07] Okay, buddy, calm down. All right? Okay, but here's what she does. She pulls. Oh, this is a good one. She says she comes to him. This is Jesus. She comes to him and asks in front of Mary. Mary's sitting right there. She says, lord, don't you care? Hey, does anybody else care? Does anybody see this? That my sister. Oh, look at that. She. She's so pretty. [00:21:26] Yeah. So cute. That sister has left me to do the work all by myself. [00:21:34] And then I want you to do this, Jesus. I want you. [00:21:38] You to tell her to help me. [00:21:42] I mean, this is amazing. This is amazing. Where did she get that from? Martha's been spending time with Jesus. Mom, listen. You know, we were at a wedding, and I told Jesus to do it, and he did it. I don't know who's like, hey, can you. [00:21:55] Have you ever been in an argument with someone? Or, like, it's just awkward, and you are in the same room, and there are a couple people, and you're like, can you tell so and so that I don't want to do? Like it's like you can just talk to them, but you're not going to talk to them. You're just going to go bypass. Like tell your sister to da da da da da. Tell your brother to da da da da. Like what's happening here? She's so not like herself. Here's why I'm trying to tell you. [00:22:21] Cause your relationship with God, if it's all about the deaconing, if it's all about serving, it's all about the list, it's all about all the to do's you have to do and all things, the right answers, all the things you gotta just, if you're gonna, you're just gonna burn out because you think God meets you in all those service that you do for him. But the truth is God meets you in the margin of your life. Jesus had like a closeness to God. [00:22:47] Why? Because he in the middle the things he was doing for God, he walked away to actually become close to him. [00:22:55] He walked away to get to like, I mean did Jesus ever was ever anxious? I'm sure he was. I'm sure he was. Did he get overwhelmed? Of course. Yes, of course. He did all. Even in his last prayers, he has so much anxiety, he says so much anxiety, praying and all that he knew that the work of God. The work of God is not the same as the presence of God. [00:23:20] The presence of God is in the what in the margins of our life. The question is, are we gonna create it? And so here Jesus says, hey, hey, hey. So let's. He responds. And he starts off, and he starts off with saying what he says, martha, hey, Martha. I love the two twice. And like I love that because even different translations, there's a, there's a whole, there's a sweetness to it. It's like, hey, I, I see you. I get it, Martha, I get it, I get it. And she says, I know, I know you're worried about and upset about many things. I get it. There's a lot, there's a lot to do here. [00:23:56] Now she had just asked Jesus to do something. And this is his kind way of saying no, like I'm not going to do that. Like he starts off, he didn't say no, I'm not going to do that. He goes, martha, Martha, see there's so many things and they're all good things. And then he says, but few things are what needed. [00:24:24] See, there's some things that are so urgent you gotta do Them. But then there are some things that are super necessary. See, there are some things that are so good, man, it's good to be around people and have experiences. It's good to, you know, be successful. It's good to have a lot of friends. It's good to have a lot of experiences. It's good to have all these things in your life that you can talk about. It's all good, good stuff. But just never remember there's good and then there's better. [00:24:52] There's better. There's. There's urgent things, the things that are right in front of you and the things that are necessary. [00:24:59] See, see, the. In one way to look at it, when it comes to urgency and necessary things in our life, like, you gotta realize that the loudest things should not get all the attention. [00:25:13] And the most quiet things in our life should not be ignored. [00:25:18] Like, we've gotta find that balance of, like, oh, because it's so much attention. So much. So much. So Jesus is like, Martha, I know, I get it. There's a lot. But. But there's only a few things that are needed. [00:25:33] And here's what he says. [00:25:35] He says, and Mary, she's chosen what is what better? [00:25:42] What is better? And it will not be taken away from her. It won't be taken away from her. Like, as in, was he saying, hey, I'm not going to tell her to stop. [00:25:51] Actually, it's a little bit more. In the original language, the whole idea of being taken away is the same phrase where it says won't pass away. [00:26:01] So what Jesus is really saying is like, all the good things you're doing, all the things you're doing for me, they're all gonna go away. [00:26:09] Like, all the work, you know, the hummus is gonna go bad. [00:26:13] Peter's gonna spoil. [00:26:15] We're gonna eat all this. It's all gonna go away. The service, the party's gonna be over. It's all gonna go away. All the things you're doing for me is all gonna go away. [00:26:22] There are some things, they're never gonna pass away. [00:26:26] And she's chosen that. [00:26:29] So what he's saying is. He's talking about. He's nodding to the phrase that he will go into later on in the story, in the. In the gospel stories. And he'll talk about his word. He says, hey, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. [00:26:46] That phrase, pass away is the same as this. [00:26:50] So he's saying, hey, there's things that your soul needs that cannot be nourished. By activity. [00:26:58] They're nourished by my word, they're nourished by my presence. There's some like, you can feel me and you can feel a connection to me as I save you from something. And you're like, oh my gosh, God is so good. Amazing. Oh my God. Yeah. But there's a different presence of God that you and I were created to live on. And that is not when God saves us, when God just meets with us, when God's just there in the whisper, when God's there in the quiet, when God's just there when you're walking, when Jesus would be walking and he's all alone. See, there's something that you need to hear from God. And you can never hear from God if you don't just take a minute. And when. I mean a minute, I mean literally a minute. Like, I don't know about you, but sometimes I get into a phase of life where it's so busy, busy, busy. As soon as I get into my car, I gotta have some music on. [00:27:54] And sometimes I've just like shut it off. It seems so weird. Sometimes I'm like, all right, God, what are you saying? What are you doing? Hey, I'm just going to take a minute. Could you imagine spiritually if you were like, oh, man, I've heard this thing about quiet times and I can't. You know, I know you got to read and you got to pray. You got to do this and you've got to be. It's got to be at least 15 to 30 minutes. Because if it doesn't, if not 15 and 30 minutes, it doesn't count. [00:28:19] I think everything counts. I think you parking your car and waiting for a couple of seconds and just praying and breathing and acknowledging God in your life and then going to the next meeting counts. It's you being aware of what. Not just happening around you, but inside of you, like God's doing something. And see, those moments allow us to be so in tuned with other things that God's doing in other people's lives. If you just take the time to sit in a moment and feel something. And it's so hard for us because we're anxious. We're all this. We're all these things. But friends, it's a game changer. That's why I walk almost every night. I just try to get out, you know, And I've had cops called on me before in my neighborhood. But anyways, because it was late, it was late, but I'm just. It's just a Good practice just to kind of just get away and walk and be alone, you know? I will never forget the story. Like, several years ago, there was a tragic accident that took place in Lake Norman. And I don't know if you remember it, but if you've been lived here long enough. And this was. [00:29:33] It involved a young woman who had a boating accident and she lost her arm and some other part. It was so graphic and terrible and horrific. And I remember reading that and, you know, I mean, am I like you? Like, sometimes when things are so bad, I just, like, don't want to look at them. [00:29:55] See what I'm saying? I'm like, oh, my gosh. I can't. I can't. I can't do. Why? Because I'm emotionally. What? [00:30:01] Spent. I'm like, I cannot do this. And even now, you look at the. Look at the news and look at the stuff, you're like, oh, my goodness. It's overwhelming. The grief and the pain and the sorrow and tragedy is overwhelming. [00:30:16] And a couple of years ago, I just started a new practice, and I started following on Instagram. I started following refugees everyday refugees account. And I just make myself watch. I mean, just look at how refugee woman, you know, with his mom, they're sleeping the dirt. I just want to see that. And I know it's like, you're like, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with me is because I do so much. I'm so busy, I, I, I sometimes find myself not having time to care. [00:30:49] Just being honest. I just like, I don't have time for this. I got. I gotta make time. So here I am, I read this article about this woman, like, Norman, and I. I don't know what happened. I was like, God, I mean, I don't know this woman, but I am. I was praying. I was like. It just haunted me for a while. I'm like, oh, my gosh. She was a young girl. I was like, how and why? And this. And I don't know, it bothered me. And I was like, God, if, if there's. If I can, you know, and the name was not really given. And I was like, I wonder if there's a way that I could do something for this, their family, or do something for them. And, you know, and I thought about that. And then a couple of weeks later, I was in the airport flying somewhere, and I was like, I had some time. So I was like, I'm going to get some sushi. I know, I know. Risky, risky, risky situation in the airport. But I was like, I'm gonna just grab some sushi. So I went. And the girl was on behind the counter, and she was ringing me out, and I was like, you know what? I've got a moment. I'm gonna be. [00:31:49] I'm gonna be a human. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, hey, how are you? She's like, oh, I'm good. All right, we're talking. And then she's like, oh, yeah. Where are you? Are you from here? Are you going somewhere? I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm from Charlotte. She's like, oh, yeah, I'm from Charlotte, too. Like, oh, cool. And he said. She's like, hey, where you going? I'm like, oh, you know, I'm gonna go speak. She's like, oh, you're a speaker. I'm like, yeah, on what? I'm like, you know, because sometimes I feel like the conversation ends. You know what I'm saying? It just ends, and I don't want to make it awkward. And I was like, you know what? This time I'm like, I'm a pastor. I'm a pastor. I'm gonna go speak at a church. And she's like, oh, okay. And then she just said, you know, my relationship with God is just not good right now. [00:32:31] And I was like, oh, we're doing this. Okay? [00:32:36] And good thing no one's behind me. And I was like. So I just leaned in. I said, what's going on? [00:32:43] You will not believe what she said. [00:32:46] She said, a couple of weeks ago, my sister was in Lake Norman. [00:32:53] And when she said that, I was like, sh. [00:32:56] In my head. I said, shut up. I was like, you are freaking me out again. All my head. [00:33:03] And she was like. She was like, norman. [00:33:06] And I said, I read. She was like, that was my sister. [00:33:11] And I was like, I have two conversations going on. One is like, are you kidding me right now? What is happening? [00:33:19] And then. And she's like. And I just. Why would a God allow that? [00:33:25] And I was like, when I said, I want to help this family out, I didn't mean this. You know, what do I do? [00:33:35] And I was like, hey. [00:33:37] I said, I don't know. I don't know. [00:33:40] I know that everything that happens here in this world, it's not God's will. [00:33:45] In fact, Jesus said, pray for God's will. Cause it's not actually being done. [00:33:51] So it's not all. [00:33:52] But God is working in the middle of all of this brokenness and evil and tragedy. And I said, I know that because for this Moment because just weeks ago I read the article and I prayed God if there was any way I could help this family. And now out of all the people in the airport, I go to this counter, buy this questionable sushi and I'm talking to you and I just want you to know God heard you. [00:34:23] We both had like this moment of like, ah, like what's gonna happen. [00:34:27] Never saw her again, you know, so what is that? I don't know what that is. [00:34:32] All I do know is that you take the time. And I've been guilty of not want being so busy that I just don't go, hey, God, is there a moment? Is there a margin? I'm gonna make a margin where from one appointment to the next to this and this one here, I've got margin enough for you to say something for either me or for someone else. [00:34:55] I've got this, I've got this. I'm not too busy not to hear you. [00:35:00] Because not everything that's loud needs attention, but everything that's quiet, those quiet moments do not need to be ignored. Because that's when you hear God's whisper and he shows you something, you hear something, you feel something. [00:35:14] So what is, what is the necessary spiritual. The necessary. [00:35:20] The necessary the better. The necessary spiritual practice that you have to make to create margin. To make margin. Like how do you do it? [00:35:30] What do you have to do? What do you need to do? I don't know what it is for you, but let's figure this out. Because if you're wanting to hear from God, it doesn't happen in all of this part of your schedule. It happens in the what the margin of your life. [00:35:46] So let's just create it and meet God there. [00:35:49] Let me pray for us. [00:35:51] Lord God, thank you so much for your love for us. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you God that you've created us to choose what's better. [00:36:01] We know there are so many good things we can choose from, but there is better, there's a better way, there's a better conversation, there's a better moment out there. [00:36:11] God, I pray over us that even today as we end and we sing this song that we would give our lives to you in a sense where we would give all the things we do, all the to do's either at work, all the converse, all the phone calls we have to make and the follow ups we have to make and all the conversations got all the hard conversations we have to have with employees or employers. God, all the, all, all the things, all the things we just give it all. [00:36:42] And God, I do pray that as we take a minute, respond, that we might go and light a candle with a different attitude, with a different perspective. We might go the cross and put something on the cross that's. It's a little different. [00:37:02] We might go receive communion, God, just a little differently. Or we might just allow ourselves to just sit in this moment and just give us. [00:37:14] Give us, like, five deep breaths just to remind you that, God, that you are the air we breathe. [00:37:25] So let's do that. We'll sing the song, but just take a minute and just sit as we sing this. [00:37:34] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina. [00:37:39] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.