Today I’ve been having flashbacks to when my kids were little and went back to school after having three months of summer break. There’s a quietness in the house that surpasses one’s understanding until you’ve personally experienced it.
And that’s when you realize just how crazy busy your life has been. All the hustle and bustle that leads to the first day of school or the first day in a new job, a new house, or a new office.
“Be still my child and sit with me,” the whisper of the Lord soothingly summons.
This world is crazy!
We don’t even realize how erratic the world is all around us.
I’m convinced most days we’re completely unaware of this craziness because we’re so distracted with our own little worlds.
Or the opposite…
We’re so distracted with the larger world’s crazy issues that we’re unaware of our own personal world’s craziness.
Either way, if we aren’t careful, we personally end up in a whirlwind of craziness.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to personally experience the consequences of ignoring the stillness with God Himself.
True Story Ahead
Today, I took a vacation day from my human resources job while movers move all our boxes and files and other stuff from our old office space into our new office space.
I had lofty plans today to go to my writer’s studio to strategize and write all day long.
God had a different plan for me.
I slept in (7:30 a.m.) WooHoo!
Then I actually drank my first cup of coffee at the dining room table and was waking up slowly as my youngest daughter chatted all about recent events in her life. I loved that she shared with me.
I quickly realized, though, that once she left for her college day of classes, I would have the whole house to myself! Do you know how rare that is? Rare!
So, I changed my plans from packing up for the day and heading to my writer’s studio to making a second cup of coffee and heading back into my bedroom where I was going to plunk out a blog post while sitting in my jammies.
But first, I opened my bedroom window and then I listened to one of my favorite praise songs. Before I knew it, tears were flowing down my face.
God Himself was present and the two of us have spent quite a few hours together now. I didn’t realize how crazy my own world had become and how much I just needed to sit and be still with Him.
There was a familiarity about these moments. That’s when I realized the “change” in the atmosphere so reminded me of years gone by when my kids went back to school after summer break…finally…and I would come home to a quiet house.
I didn’t know what to do with myself in those first moments, but quickly I would do exactly like I did today.
I embraced the rarity of having the house to myself. When the hustle and bustle of getting everyone where they needed to be had been accomplished. I would realize just how exhausted I was and how much I, the mom, needed to be refreshed. I’d sit and relish the time alone with God.
I needed to regain my energy.
I spent quite a bit of time this morning looking out my bedroom window onto our backyard. The warm breeze hitting my face. The blue sky beaming down at me. The silence of it all enveloped me. I was brought back to those days when my kids were little, and I got rare “still” moments to refresh with God Himself.
Rarity of Stillness
This world is crazy, and I need Jesus more than ever before.
How grateful I am today that He is present in my life.
Having the house all to myself is rare, but I don’t want to make my moments with just God Himself rare.
There’s a reason God instructs us to be still (Psalm 46:10). He knows this world is crazy.
So that we don’t become crazy, we need to be quiet with Him, soak up who He is, and be refreshed so that we’re ready to embrace when the kids come home.
Prayer for Today
“O God and Father, The world has been too much with me. Thou has been here and I knew it not. I have been blind to Thy presence. Open my eyes that I may behold Thee in and around me. For Christ’s sake, Amen.”
(Taken from A.Z. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God)
Blessing for your Day
May God Himself open your eyes that you may behold Him in and around you. May you personally be still with God Himself today. May this crazy world not envelope you, but instead may God Himself.
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