Simple: Still

"He leads me besides the still waters." Psalm 23:2

"Be still and know that I AM God." Psalm 46:10

"Peace, be still." Matthew 8:23

As quarantine has made less activity a necessity, I've often found myself vibrating, kind of humming, with pent-up energy.

What do I do? What do the kids do? 

We will do this, this, this, and that, I plan, fraught with a kind of fear of boredom and too much down time. We are productive Americans! my minds seems to sings. We can and we will always find a way to work, and if not work, exhaust ourselves with our distractions and our play!

How exhausting.

Can I just have a few weeks at home to do nothing, wear pajamas, and take it easy?

Oh, wait.

That's kind of what's being asked of us right now, and yet, I can turn even this quiet season into a frantic tizzy of wondering what I must do. And I wonder if I am called to something else instead.

Be still.

Time and again in Scripture God calls His children to stillness. Not because activity is bad--no, there are times for that. But in seasons of the frantic, in the uncertainty, He recalls His children to stillness and points back to Himself as the safe thing, the certain thing, when everything else is a raging storm of uncertainty.

I'm not so good at being still. Well, I am when I feel I have control of a situation, and then I kind of sit back with an air of self-satisfaction and pride. But when my personal chips are down, stillness is the opposite of what I want to be, and I will do all I can to regain control--maybe by  buying a lot of stuff, eating a great deal, or merely withdrawing from loved ones until I think I've gotten a grip.

But the stillness of God is so different.

It isn't about me very much at all, but rather who God is, and whether or not I'm willing to accept it.

 If I accept that God is sovereign and I am not; if I trust that He is always certain in uncertain times; if I say He is my portion and my sufficiency, it is then my hum of fear and anxiety can rest. I can be still-- both physically, without the need to be productive to be considered valuable; and spiritually, without needing to be in control.

In terms all the musing I'm doing on flowers these days, I think being still looks a lot like a seed in the ground--all the waiting, all the stillness, and yet confident in all that is still happening: growth, life, renewal.

I'll still be plenty busy these days--I don't think complete stillness is possible with small children.  But the beckon to be still means I can embrace these quieter quarantine days because I know the One who holds them, and holds me.

And He is still at work.

Peace. Be still.