I’ve been hearing a lot about being still and knowing God is God. Listening for His Voice. I think for some of us that can be a real issue. When can we find time to sit still? Our chores are calling our names, and the work week begins again in a day or so. So we choose: get stuff done or sit still and commune with God.
Most of the time, I am bemoaning my busy schedule. Yes, I had to do some yard work during this rare warm, sunny weekend. But today I set aside to sit on my porch and enjoy. The new growth on all the Spring foliage varies in its green-ness and the sky is golden blue. Gray/blue hills in the distance still show some white tips and I savor the warm breezes.
I can feel myself relax. I feel God’s pleasure as well.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” He seems to be saying. “Look at all I have created. Can you hear my birds twittering? Don’t they sound delightful?”
I can only agree. How wonderful just to sit still and feast my eyes on flowers, lawns, bushes, the rocky ridge on the other side of the river valley and watch the birds chasing each other from tree to tree.
Dr. Henry Cloud says that our brains are designed to respond to positive stress for creative processing, but to be constantly overstimulated does not allow for the necessary replenishing. We are to rest on the Sabbath – or one day a week. Resting means not producing, according to Dr. Cloud. Even fields are left fallow to restore themselves for the next crop’s harvest.
So, it is ok to sit on the porch and just enjoy. Push aside the clamoring voice that would say, “GET UP, I tell you! GET UP and GET TO WORK! No more dilly dallying. The chores won’t do themselves and you go back to work tomorrow. GET UP!”
No. I choose now to sit and bask in the Presence of my God and all He has provided for me this day. His intention is that my soul should be refreshed. I choose to listen to His Voice in the silence around me that teems with life.
“Be still and know that I am God” Psalm 46:10.
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