An Invitation From God

An Invitation from God

Be still, and know that I am God! Psalm 46:10

As Melissa read Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God,” she sighed and thought, If I’m still, I’ll fall asleep. If I’m still, I won’t get everything done today, and then I’ll get fired. With working sixty hours a week, getting to the gym five days a week, being part of her singles’ kinship group, and checking on her mom at the assisted-living center, Melissa thought that being still, taking time to be with a friend, or having a quiet walk were luxuries she didn’t have time for.

Like Melissa, many women today lead lives of “scheduled hyperactivity.” The old status symbols used to be a new house or car. But now people say, “You’re busy? You should see how busy I am!” With our full schedules, we feel as if we’re on a merry-go-round and we don’t know how to get off. We talk on cell phones, juggle multiple tasks, drive while listening to talk radio, make lists of what we’ll do the next hour or the next day. We live in a lightning-speed-e-mail-text-message-Blackberry-information-superhighway-YouTube-URL world that makes it difficult to have a conversation with a human being we can see—much less with our heavenly Father, whom we can’t see—without being distracted.

Yet even in the maddening rush of this crazy-busy world, God tells us to be still and rest in him. The world will not stop turning if we take time for stillness. In fact, it may feel as if it has “slowed down” a bit. Would you ask God to open your heart to his gift of stillness today? —CHERI

Lord, I admit I am rarely still or silent. Yet I long to experience rest in you and peace in my heart. Draw me near to you, and quiet me with your Spirit and your love.

Silence means rest, rest of body and mind, in which we become available for God.

—HENRI NOUWEN (1932–1996), DUTCH PRIEST AND WRITER