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Making room for God
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
There’s too much “stuff.”
So I’m going on a diet.
Not the usual diet,
of cutting sweets and fats.
I won’t be counting calories,
or checking cholesterol.
No, this diet is different.
This diet is designed
to make room for God.
This diet is designed
to fatten me up
—to satisfy my spiritual sense.
I’m going on a “stuff” diet.
I’m getting rid of the stuff that keeps me
from quiet communion with God.
And the “rushing around smartly”* stuff.
And the list stuff.
Sometimes my “stuff” is finding
paper for the printer,
or buying tennis shoes
for our son the sprinter.
It could be a house key
that needs to be made
or framing our daughter’s picture
from the second grade.
No doubt you have your own list
—your own stuff—
That keeps you quite busy.
There are the lessons, the taxes,
the messages and faxes,
the door bell, the oil change,
the unsought packages.
But, as for me, I’m going on a diet.
A diet that’s designed
to make room for God.
A diet designed
to satisfy my spiritual sense.
Thoughtfully I put my list of stuff aside.
Giving me more time with God to abide.
Quietly I sit. Listen. Pray.
This is God’s hour
—this is God’s day.
His thoughts, His angels, they speak to me.
Guide me, protect me, point out the way.
And prayerfully, humbly, I slowly regain
My spiritual sense that’s God-ordained.
This is how I fast
from the daily hubbub of matter.
And guess what?
I’m thinner now—not so bowed down.
My life is more balanced, less battered.
I’m cutting back on stuff.
I’m staying on my diet.
Though it’s not the usual diet.
I don’t count my calories,
or check my cholesterol.
This diet is different.
This diet makes room for God.
* See Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 230 .
Less matter, more Spirit:
Science and Health
King James Bible
About the author
Lynn Jackson is a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science in Lubbock, Texas, United States.