Ice Cream Time with Jesus

Ice cream time with Jesus.
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I came up with this genius idea when I was in 6th or 7th grade, sitting down to talk to God with a nice cold treat. After long bike rides home from youth group or nights post homework, I would go into the freezer and grab some ice cream and start to listen.
The ice cream choices have changed over the years. I went from vanilla hot fudge sundaes, to Ben and Jerry Phish food, to what is now my favorite: dairy-free halo top ice cream. The ice cream has changed, but God hasn’t.

I think about tonight, ice cream in hand, mocking, and staring at the fire. We’ve gotten so caught up in getting some new revelation, realization, or renewal of energy from God that we don’t often just sit with him. We go into time alone to “get filled up” when all along we should go into time with God already filled, because his presence in our life isn’t limited to that time. God doesn’t suddenly leave when our Bibles shut or when we say, “Amen.” He wants to be with us in all things.

I’m getting to the point where I can’t read much more than one verse, pray much more than one word, and ask much more than one thing when I take intentional time in his presence. I’m caught up in him and just being with him. He is enough.

Back in 7th grade, I honestly wanted to motivate myself to listen to God more through the means of ice cream, but now as I sit and eat, I realize that it’s taught me a very important lesson. God WANTS to eat ice cream with me. He wants to be there in my skating practice, family dinners, and coffee table conversations. He wants to speak to me through my life not only when I retreat away from it.
There is a place and time for revelations. There are definitely times I ask God for help in decisions. There are times where plop down on my bed before him overwhelmed.

I’m learning I don’t have to wait for a designated “quiet time” though to go before him. “Quiet time” is amazing, but what if quiet time is not just a place and time but a position of your heart? What if every moment you felt as joyful, free, and filled up as you did in your intentional time with God?

I’m slowly learning how that’s possible. I’m slowly finding that when I retreat away to a place of silence, it’s not that different, because my heart has been in a posture of silence. I’m slowly finding that when I get by myself it’s not entirely different because it was me and him alone together all day.

I love just sitting with God, eating ice cream, listening, talking, and simply being. I think the most transformative thing is never the revelation, realization, or renewal that we get in our heads, but the ones that hit the heart.

I’ve slowly been finding what it actually means to be still and know that he is God.

Psalm 46:10, "He says, 'Be still and know that I am God.'"

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