Let
me just tell you…I am not good at “being still”. I love schedules and planning
and filling my time with meetings while using my color-coded agenda. I organize
my time around my “to-do” list, which stays mostly in my head because I have
the memory of an elephant! #reasonswhyiloveelephants… A successful day in my
mind would be one where I have accomplished tasks, hung out with four or five
students, made some phone calls, went to a meeting, and came home at 8pm
exhausted from my day, but satisfied with the fact that I did work. I got
things done. I am an amniovert. It’s a
new term in the Myers Briggs test that defines someone who is both an introvert
and extrovert. I like being around people, but my energy comes from being
around one or two people at a time, not 75. So my energy would quickly
deteriorate after spending ALL day on campus. I started to see my walk with God
kind of the same way. As long as I was spending my scheduled time with Him, and
meeting for discipleship with all of my students, and then meeting with more new
students, and then running off to our weekly meeting, I was being productive. I
never took time to sit down and just be still. I go in and out of the seasons
where I think I need to do a certain amount of tasks for God for Him to be
pleased with me, and then realizing that it’s not about a checklist. He wants
us to just sit with Him and be with Him. You know that best friend who you can
hang out for hours with and have a really great time without actually saying
much of anything? God wants us to soak in His truth and love and be quiet
before Him.
Rest
Truly
my soul finds rest in God; my salvation comes from him.Truly he is my
rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken. –Psalm 62:1-2
With
the beginning of the semester, things can get CRAAAZY. You want to sign up for
everything and meet new friends and go go go until fall break finally arrives
and you can take a short nap before you go visit your friends at JMU because
they don’t have a fall break…and the cycle of do everything ever starts over
again and you become burnt out. Take
time to be with Jesus. It doesn’t have to be this whole big organized prayer
and worship session where you journal for 20 pages and have a revelation about
your life. Those are great times too, but... Time with Jesus can be simple,
sweet, and still. Just listen.
With
the beginning of the semester, things can get CRAAAZY. You want to sign up for
everything and meet new friends and go go go until fall break finally arrives
and you can take a short nap before you go visit your friends at JMU because
they don’t have a fall break…and the cycle of do everything ever starts over
again and you become burnt out. Take
time to be with Jesus. It doesn’t have to be this whole big organized prayer
and worship session where you journal for 20 pages and have a revelation about
your life. Those are great times too, but... Time with Jesus can be simple,
sweet, and still. Just listen.