I have a confession. I ALWAYS like to move. I don’t feel myself unless I am doing some activity, or doing something to enhance my knowledge and skills. Sometimes I start to feel guilty for taking it easy. Even after a long day of landscaping I can feel that way.

It’s very common to work 70+ hours a week, and there are some who promote doing even more than that. What is it about downtime that brings a sense of shame? I don’t feel we were meant to be mules grinding away without end. Certain situations in a person’s life can necessitate working that long and hard for monetary, or entrepreneurial reasons, but the guilt for resting? Please… there has to be a better way. There at least has to be a better mindset.

Jesus was no stranger to downtime, and periods of introspection. For Pete’s sake, the Son of God was lights out on a boat during a storm! He wasn’t trying to be Charlton Heston braving the storm like a biblical minuteman., so to speak. He even spoke to Martha for bashing on her sister for sitting at his feet listening to what he had to say (Luke 10:38-42).

If he was good with being still. How is it normal for his friends, and any person alive to feel the compulsion to strive, grind, and burden forward beyond merit? We can’t do our best without finding rest within, and throughout.

I’m not talking about sleep. I’m talking about finding a wholesome peace for the soul and body. A flow, in other words, that respects the time and place of the heart towards its innumerable reasons for feeling the way that it does. That state brings about a sense of stillness while one is in motion.

For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and you would not.

Isaiah 30:15, AKJV

In the stillness of the voice of God we will find the actions we need to take. If that action is being still for a time, or for a season… so be it. It is better to be still in the hands of the Holy One than to be running on the treadmill of error and worldly vice.

Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31, AKJV

To still your heart, and life eventually — you have to be still in the hands, and voice of the one who DOES move on your behalf. Even if you cannot see it in the present — He will drop hints for you to know he is more than busy working towards a better future for you.

Staying still isn’t about doing nothing. It’s about God doing the great, and unobtainable things for you that you CANNOT do alone for yourself. He will if you stay still.

Blessings.