To Be At Peace, Be Still

August has been an exhausting month.

Work is consuming.

Writing projects and deadlines on top of work.

Chasing here to there and back again.

Too many choices and to-do’s.

Constant fatigue and head pressure for weeks culminating in a sinus infection.

Is it even really summer?

I feel as if I haven’t actually experienced this season, nor slowed down to let the days show me what they should be.

I’m bone-weary, soul burdened, with no remedy that truly lasts.

Is it me? Am I striving too much to get too much done? Is it circumstances I let control my frenetic pace of life?

What is it really that is keeping the peace from my heart and stillness from my soul?

“Peace, be still,” Jesus says to the sea.

But can he calm the sea in me?

He is able, but am I willing?

Am I willing to admit I’m trying to keep all the plates spinning because it somehow feels important, that if I slow my speed and do less, my life will somehow feel less?

Gone are the blissful days of sitting still and savoring; a new era of rush is ushered in, pulling for our attention. It is loud, it is hurried, and it has us caught in its current, swept away in action and checklists and misguided affection. More does not equal more. Less is not always a lesser value.

Are we willing to set down some of our to-do’s and take a few moments to simply be?

To be at peace, and be still?

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:26-27

The birds don’t bother with a timeline. They extend their wings, lift off, and let the wind take them where they need to go. They don’t concern themselves with what will be the most efficient way to get there; they land on the cool branch of a tree and linger.

To be is not bad; occasionally, it is what’s best. To be in the present moment, the seconds slipping by, to give our souls pause enough to breathe and recover.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

It’s important that we recover what has been buried under the busy. Bring it to the surface, let it catch its bearings, let it speak. And prepare yourself to listen, pay attention to what’s reviving within you, what is coming back to life.

May you come back to life. May we all become at home with be-ing.