Still, Very Still

Please, sit down for a moment and just relax. Yes, you. Motivated people always seem to be ‘on’. It’s like, no matter where they are, who they are with and what is happening all around, they are always on. Just like you, at times. They never seem to relax and just take it ‘in’. They find it difficult to just sit in an easy chair and just, well, just do nothing.

I noticed it a few weeks back. So, I'm thinking of getting some of these chairs at the church just for them. These individuals seemed to always want to be doing something or other.  And even if they find themselves just being, they frantically try to find something to do or be involved in. I guess I’m noticing this more so since I stopped always being ‘on’. Yes, it used to consume me. Even when I wasn’t doing anything my mind was going a hundred miles an hour working out what I thought I needed to be doing and once I got it figured out, off I went and made it happen.

Last week when I was just sitting doing nothing I noticed it was happening again. There I was thinking about the next sermon, service, and article. Even the one that I was about to sit down and think about even before my fingers started dancing on the laptop. It was then that I said to myself, ‘take a step back and take you fingers off the keys’. I did.  

Over the last two months I have been spending more time with more people, just listening. And in doing so, I realized something more important than doing anything. I learned that I don’t necessarily need to have answers more than I need to let people talk and me listen.

We can do this so easily. Try this, Go and visit with someone. Do the normal things, ‘How are you, Everything good’? Then sit back and listen. Don’t interrupt; don’t try to come up with any answers. Just let them talk. A long time ago I heard a very important line. “You can never learn something if your mouth never takes a break”.

When we get to this point of being a good listener we will be doing what God does. I honestly believe God shows up and says to us, “How are you, what’s happening” then He sits there beside us with only a smile of reassurance that tells us He is listening.

We can’t be God but we can engage in listening as He has listened to us. He listens to us when we sit and talk while He listens. And it happened before with Him as we heard Him say; “Be Still and know that I am God”.

Something to think about

Rob