Has there ever been a time in history where being busy has been made more convenient? We have umpteen opportunity to add to our calendars athletic engagements, organizational gatherings, overtime work, commitments, meetings and extracurriculars. This is on top of baseline obligations to all things school, social and church. But I’m afraid even quitting commitments might not make us less busy.

That’s right. The type of busy we must address in our preparation for Pentecost is the busyness of the mind and heart, as that is what truly suffocate the Spirit.

Why can we not wait in a grocery line without swiping, scrolling or snapchatting. Why do we feel anxious without a continual feed of podcasts, streamings or social media? We have become more comfortable being fed others’ thoughts than sitting silently in the empty moments with our own. And yet Mother Teresa insists it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. The silence of the heart.

Perhaps more than the enemy wanting to destroy the Spirit’s presence in our life, he simply wants to distract us from it. The Spirit is hindered by our bulging calendars, yes, but more so by our busied minds. For the Spirit to be received, we must empty our mind’s time and attention of unimportant fillers. While there are many things we are committed to, a busy life is not an excuse for a busy mind. The Spirit is ready to fill the places we have otherwise filled with our feeds. Where can we empty that He may better fill?

Commit to finding ten minutes during the day - in the morning, on a commute, waiting in a line, before bed - you will welcome the Spirit intentionally that you would otherwise occupy with literal or figurative noise.